Month: April 2017

April 28, 2017

The Earth Day March for Science rattled the elites and
could not be silenced

Of all the unanticipated and unpredictable political upheavals of the past six months, the national March For Science ranks among the most surprising.  Americans came out by the hundreds of thousands across the nation to put forth the message that the neocon Corporatist radicals who have seized control of our government are completely out of line with their ideological opposition to and massive monetary cuts to scientific, health and environmental research and initiatives.  There were marches in major Cities and smaller municipalities across the country, simultaneously some 600 marches on every continent including Antarctica.

Here in the City of Albany around seven or eight thousand people gathered outside the State Capital to listen to distinguished speakers including scientists and elected officials, to inspect organizational tables, and finally to march a short loop a couple of blocks up Washington Avenue and back down State Street.  Despite the mood of urgency and sense of defiance this was a well behaved crowd composed of people who mostly looked like they had never attended a demonstration before.  As someone pointed out to me after the crowd had dispersed, there was no litter to be seen anywhere around the Capital.  Not a speck.

Crowds Gather At The Capital Hours Before The Earth Day March for Science, Albany NY

Yet despite this stunning and surprising surge of public expression by an important and influential sector of the public that had never displayed defiant activism before, the Corporate Media was absent both locally at the Albany and Saratoga marches and was absent nationally.  Obviously this was deliberate.  For example, the Hearst owned Times Union briefly mentioned that “hundreds” participated in the Albany march, a lie on their part.  By this crude act of censorship the moneyed corporate elites who own the Corporate Media signaled their terrified disapproval of this novel wave of activism.  We’re scaring them.

Earth Day Science March, Albany NY

The Science marches took place on Earth Day, at the Albany march the two events were melded together.  There are plenty of other Earth Day events held every year in nearby neighborhoods, such as the South End cleanup sponsored by AVillage and the open house and fair at the Radix Center urban farm among others.  I hear these events were held as usual but I’m guessing that attendance and participation was siphoned off by the big event at the Capital.

The blend of themes was a good one that worked well together.  Once upon a time Earth Day was centered around a formerly radical movement called Environmentalism, and the day was devoted to educating the public about a greedy society that was killing itself with pollution and wastefulness while offering solutions to those problems.  This year it was interesting to see that defiant activism of the last century revived in a new and unexpected way, encouraging that people still care about their country. 

Earth Day Science March, Albany NY

After the first Earth Day in 1970 our various governments and much more grudgingly the corporations eventually incorporated a “greener” set of policies that visibly improved our quality of life.  The air, water and land became cleaner, dangerous poisonous substances were removed from our homes and public places, matters of health and nutrition eventually improved.  There were constant debates about consequences of innovative policies mostly promoted by profit-minded special interests, but the general perception was that the authorities were taking charge of environmental matters and were genuinely interested in promoting them for our benefit.

Earth Day Science March, Albany NY… Galileo Said That

But all that changed at the beginning of this year when a cabal of unpatriotic corrupt fools and their party beholden to the greediest of irresponsible special interests seized control of the federal government.  Suddenly anyone with any sense realized that these new authorities are not in the least bit interested in our health and well being, rather they seem to be promoting public harm.  Just as alarmingly, it has become clear that these authorities do not see any reason to promote America’s science and technology because they aren’t smart enough to understand the basic idea of science and research.

Earth Day Science March, Albany NY

Someone asked me recently how it is possible that the fool in the White House or the other fools in his political party could not understand the importance of clean air and water or of scientific research.  Didn’t these people grow up in this country, don’t they live here?  Don’t they breathe the same air and drink the same water that we do, and share in the same technological developments?

My reply was that “Our President” is a very clever person who knows how to get people to give him what he wants, but cleverness does not equate to intelligence.  Many house pets are clever, they are experts at getting what they want from the humans around them, but that doesn’t mean they can comprehend abstract ideas.  “Our President” and his party comrades are much like house pets, no, they can’t see the consequences of their clever but selfish actions, they don’t understand the damage they are doing to themselves and to others.

And yet somehow the greedy little clever house pets have taken over the house.  This is why so many people who have never marched in a demonstration or would even dream of protesting have now taken to the streets as they did this Earth Day in Albany and elsewhere.  No one wants to start a revolution and burn down the house, but just about every decent person with any common sense understands that we can’t let the house pets run our lives.

Display Table, Earth Day Science March, Albany NY

About 45 organizational display tables were set up along State Street next to the capital and nearby walkways, these reflected both the traditional Earth Day concerns but also this newer pro-science theme.  I arrived about three hours before the march was scheduled to begin but already the crowds were so thick I could hardly get near the tables. 

Display Table, Earth Day Science March, Albany NY

From what I could see through the bodies, the emphasis at many of these science tables was hands-on education for the kids.  At one table kids were encouraged to make big round slides of some kind of pond dwelling life form and look at it through a microscope.  At another table sponsored by a medical center I watched a kid being taught medical laboratory procedures.

Display Table, Earth Day Science March, Albany NY

Some of the more traditional Earth Day displays were also hands-on for kids, such as the solar power electronics assembling table. There were also the activism tables representing long-time defenders of our environment that one would expect to see on Earth Day. The Sierra Club was present, as were groups like Women Against War and Bethlehem Neighbors for Peace, patriotic groups that support environmental goals as conducive to peace and prosperity.

Save The Pine Bush Table, Rezsin Adams With Blue SPB Sweatshirt, Earth Day Science March, Albany NY

Notable among them was Save the Pine Bush (SPB), the organization that through some 30 years of grassroots activism achieved the impossible and managed to defend enough of the globally rare Pine Bush ecosystem from sprawl development to put it into a government sponsored preserve, a preserve created by their lawsuits.  The Pine Bush is now considered one of the region’s main attractions.  Last year this venerable group almost disbanded having apparently achieved their main goals, but at what was supposed to be their final meeting some 30 people showed up and demanded that the group stay together to meet the new wave of environmental threats from above.

Dr. Ed Landing Explains The Geology Of Fracking, Earth Day Science March, Albany NY

Also notable were informational tables that blended both the science and environmental themes.  There was one that showed all comers how to test water for impurities, at others I saw some very impressive fossils which reflects the importance of land preservation.  At another I saw retired NY State Paleontologist Dr. Ed Landing passionately explaining the geology of fracking with an interesting colored contour map.  Sad to say Dr. Landing’s State job, which has been maintained since the first half of the 1800s, will probably be ended with his retirement, a bit of anti-science on the State level.

Democratic Socialists Of America Contemplating Some Weirdo With A Camera Approaching Their Table, Earth Day Science March, Albany NY

The Albany march was tied to the Washington DC march, as were all the other marches that took place that day across the country.  Some 890 organizations were listed as national sponsors, many of those organizations have active branches in and around Albany.  But from what I can tell the lead organizer of the march in Albany was the newly revived Albany chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America. (DSA) who had a prominent table set right in front of the podium.

Yes, they are not afraid to use that word that we have all been carefully trained to regard as dirty, Socialism.  The folks manning the table looked at me skeptically as I approached and saw a dumbass Baby Boomer white guy, so they gingerly handed me several pamphlets that carefully explained that Socialism was not some kind of communistic terrorism.  Since I realize that Socialism is nothing more than a modern application of the basic cooperative American values enshrined in the Bill of Rights that have made our country great, so we got past that quickly.

Peter Warren, another dumbass Baby Boomer white guy like me, explained that the Albany DSA had become closely allied with groups like Citizen’s Action and the Green Party, which are all too often perceived as extensions of the Democratic Party.  But if that was ever true then that has come to an end.  “We’re not waiting for the Democrats to organize people to march in the streets,” he said.  “We’ll be waiting a long time before that happens.”  He did not say this to me, but I am hearing a growing call to replace the Democratic Party with a party that actually represents the will of the currently unrepresented majority, particularly from people under the age of forty.

Had To Rudely Push Through The Dense Crowd To Get Near The Speakers, Earth Day Science March, Albany NY

There was a podium that early on featured some musicians, but later it was turned over to some dignitaries who gave speeches.  I missed the first few speeches because I had walked up to Lark Street to get coffee and use the can, on the way back I became conscious that I was walking toward an Earth Day rally with a disposable cup in my hand.  I stopped and slurped down my coffee but couldn’t find a municipal trash can in the heart of Center Square, so I deftly slipped the cup into a private garbage bucket sitting in a vacant looking basement doorway.  I do confess to being an ugly hypocritical American.

So I didn’t hear Albany mayor Kathy Sheehan’s speech and I only caught the very end of the speech by 2nd ward Common Council member Dorcey Applyrs, who is a public health science specialist as well as a politician.  I eased myself through the crowds to get near enough to hear some eminent scientist give a boring speech that she read off a printed sheet.  It was quite forgettable but it contained one current cliche that makes me cringe every time I hear it.

Listening Carefully To Speakers At The Earth Day March For Science, Albany NY

She repeated the canard that Science is not a Liberal conspiracy, it is non-partisan.  I call bullcrap on that.  Science is very much a byproduct of our Liberal society because to make effective Science you need a safe atmosphere where ideas can be freely exchanged and debated. Real Science does not exist in totalitarian societies. If your research is hobbled by the threat of suppression and controlled by profiteers then you will not be able to make and share your discoveries.

Indeed, the practice of Science embodies the practice of freedom that is the byproduct of living in a Liberal society.  This, my friends, is a prime reason why the scumbag in the White House and his party comrades are so hot on cutting off money for research, it is part of their broader program of destroying the Bill of Rights and negating the Liberal Revolution of 1776.  It is a simple fact that totalitarians cannot tolerate the pursuit of truth in any form because they see it as a threat to their total control of society.

Congressman Paul Tonko, Earth Day Science March, Albany NY

After several more speeches the final speech by Congressman Paul Tonko was an absolute barn burner.  He called the funding cuts to science and research by the ruling regime “immoral and un-American.”  It was inspiring to watch the thousands of people listening erupt into a roar of applause at this.  Clearly our representative in Washington is one of the few in Congress who understand the link between fundamental American Liberal values and the importance of scientific inquiry to our strength as a nation.

Which is not to be wondered at because Mr. Tonko has a degree in engineering from Clarkson College.  He said, “It is painful to sit in committee meetings and listen to anti-science from my colleagues.  And,” he asked the crowd, “What drives that?”  Instantly thousands of people answered back in one voice, “Special interests!”

That was amazing.  No wonder the Corporate Media content providers were ordered to not report on this event.  Mr. Tonko then told us that he had introduced a bill (HB 1358, if I got that right) that would prohibit cuts to science funding for federal agencies to prevent being “meddled with by politics.”  I’m not sure how this could be enforced, if I heard right this would involve oversight committees within each department that presumably would have the power to block cuts.  Well, we all know that will be killed by the majority gang because they believe in centralizing power.

Marchers For Science Climbing The Steps To South Swan Street, Earth Day Albany NY

Finally we had the march, a very orderly affair led by the dignitaries.  This was the only time we saw the Albany Police at all, they redirected traffic for the marchers, otherwise they were not needed.  Early on The Wife spotted a couple of Capital Cops (who dress like State Troopers) standing threateningly on Eagle Street, one of them brandishing an automatic weapon.  Apparently these goofs were acting on their own initiative hoping to intimidate all these hippy drug addicts, but after a little while they disappeared.

Did all these rallies and quick not very disruptive marches achieve anything or send a message?  Most decidedly yes.  Just as every army depends upon its soldiers, the technology and health sectors depend completely upon the researchers and technicians who work within the universities and the corporations.  Think of what would happen if these folks simply withdrew their support for science and health institutions, something no one has ever imagined until now.

Heading For The March, Earth Day Science March Albany NY

As mentioned earlier, the plutocrat owners of the Corporate Media appear to have wet their expensive trousers over this relatively mild uprising by formerly dependable tech servants.  Just as telling, the spoiled brat in the White House was shocked into issuing an Earth Day statement, something he plainly had no intention of doing.  The point of the statement was to say the following:

“My Administration is committed to advancing scientific research that leads to a better understanding of our environment and of environmental risks.  As we do so, we should remember that rigorous science depends not on ideology, but on a spirit of honest inquiry and robust debate.”

April 14, 2017

In like a lion out like a shark, March turned into April after some serious rain and snow

The first day of April was a Saturday, the first decent sunny day this year and so we went on a drive to go visit some used bookstores on the other side of the Hudson River that we hadn’t been to in a while.  People were outside everywhere we went, kids playing in the yards and in the streets, older folks with rakes and such cleaning up their properties, even a few runners and bicyclists.  After this cold and snowy winter and after several days of constant cold rain mixed with snow it seemed like everybody wanted to get out of their houses for a few hours.

On our way back to Albany on Route 23 I caught a glimpse of Clavarack Creek, so I turned around the car and had to be a tourist. The water was raging over an old dam.  To the left was an old mill house painted barn red leftover from when this was a cutting edge industrial facility in the 1800s. I didn’t have my camera but The Wife of course had her phone:

Clavarack Creek Seen From Route 23

Still photos can’t quite convey the sheer power of a swollen rushing waterway, it’s thrilling to watch and kind of scary.  You stand there and feel thankful it stays where its supposed to and doesn’t rise up to get you.  It’s the power of the water that makes scenes like this extraordinarily beautiful.

The next day, Sunday, was also a nice day.  A neighbor told me that Cohoes Falls was running pretty hard, so I dragged the Wife out of the house to go see.  This is the second highest falls in New York State (behind Niagara) but since the early 1800s the water has been diverted off the falls first for navigation and later for power generation.  It’s only during a wet Spring like we’ve been having that you can see what the falls are supposed to look like.

Cohoes Falls, April 2017, Hydro Power Plant At Left

Holy crap, the falls were running.  Most of the time the second highest waterfall in New York State is a disappointing trickle, it’s been that way since most of the water that is supposed to cascade over the falls was diverted to enhance navigation in the first half of the 1800s.  Back in 2014 we saw the falls running at this time of year, but that was not as spectacular as this.

Cohoes Falls, North End, April 2017

This had to be close to what the falls looked like when the first explorers saw it.  Like I’ve said before, when those pioneer guys were traveling into the wilderness by the river they must have admired the falls with awe for about twenty minutes and then cursed them mightily from then on.  I’ve read it took days to carry boats and belongings up the steep cliffs and through the wilderness just to get around these falls.

Cohoes Falls, South And Center , April 2017

The water is still diverted for navigation, but has also been diverted for power.  Over a hundred years ago that power was water wheels that turned the shafts inside the long defunct Harmony Mills clothing factories, buildings which today are apartments.  Currently the diverted water runs the five turbines of the School Street powerhouse that produce 38,800 kilowatts, enough to power 26.000 houses. That’s according to the helpful placard located at the falls overlook. 

The School Street powerhouse was built in 1915, but it hasn’t been running continuously.  In the late 20th Century the now thankfully dead and gone Niagara Mohawk Corporation took the power plant offline and wanted to fill the buildings with concrete so no one would ever be able to generate power at the falls again.  Why exactly they wanted to do such a nasty thing is a good question, apparently they didn’t want to be compelled to generate renewable energy and didn’t want anyone else to do so either.  Things like this is why corporations need to be barred from exercising any sort of political power.

The Cohoes Falls Overlook

As we hung at the overlook for a spell a fair crowd came and went to look at the spectacle, maybe 50 or so people.  This overlook was built as a mitigation measure by the Canadian Corporation Brookfield, which started up the power plant again about ten years ago.  This was not done out of the goodness of their foul corporate hearts, it was the result of years of litigation by the City of Cohoes under then mayor John McDonald, who today represents Cohoes and downtown Albany in the State Assembly.  But all is well now, the plant is running and there’s that much less fossil fuel being burned into the atmosphere.

I had to browbeat The Wife into going to see the falls, but after we had seen enough of them she had perked up quite a bit and wanted to go see more rushing water.  So we drove back to Albany to the head of the Rail Trail on South Pearl Street to look at the Normanskill rapids.  She’s always looking for excuses to go walking, and since she spends a lot of time sitting in front of a computer barely moving I try not to discourage her.

We walked the trail the half mile or so uphill to the City line.  There were still pockets of snow in protected spots on the banks of the river.  Sure enough, when we got to the rapids the water was furious and frothing.  Why anyone would ever try to run these rapids any time of the year in any sort of rig is beyond me, but apparently some people do that.

Normanskill Rapids Along The Rail Trail, April 2017

The rapids are awesomely scary to look at when they are like this, I mean if you were to fall in your chances of survival are not so great. The Normanskill in Springtime is no joke, still pictures don’t quite convey that sense of deadly danger just out of reach.  Maybe this closeup can convey it a little better.  It churned this way nonstop:

Normanskill Rapids

Now, if you don’t live around here and didn’t experience Albany’s up and down winter this year, you might wonder where all this water came from.  For instance, in the middle of February while the Midwest was having temperatures in the 80s F we were hovering around freezing in the Northeast.  Besides the heavy rains that we had at the end of March we’d had a bit of snow a few weeks earlier:

View From My Front Door On March 14

Meanwhile while it snowed in Albany The Wife was in Southern California “for business reasons.”  As I understand it she did about one day’s work and spent the rest of the time lolling about with her friend, poking around high priced boutiques and checking out young guys in speedos on the beach.  The last few days she told me that she was unhappy because it had gotten a little too cool to go swimming. 

Then her plane was delayed a day because of the snowstorm here. It was just awful.  She complained to me “We are suffering though “bad weather” in Santa Barbara.  It is foggy, so I can’t see the ocean from the hotel window.”   I sent her some photos of the snow and she helpfully sent back a picture she took not far from where she was staying:

Terrible Weather In Santa Barbara

One water issue that thankfully did not happen with all the rain and melting snow is that here in Albany the Beaverkill storm drain line did not overflow and flood the City.  Perhaps the mitigation measures meant to ease the amount of water that this line carries into the Hudson River have been working, it’s hard to say.  In any case I didn’t hear any reports of flooding in the last month on this overloaded drain line.

One notable attempt to deal with the problem has recently happened in Lincoln Park.  Off MLK Boulevard across from the community gardens just above the swimming pool a private contractor was hired by the City to dig into the pavement.  Albany Water Commissioner Joe Coffey told me they were looking for a a manhole to an auxiliary line to the Beaverkill that had not been seen by anyone for over a hundred years.

Filling In The Hole In Lincoln Park, Looking For A Long-Lost Drain Line

The dig was unsuccessful, all they found was an electrical conduit which they already knew was there.  Mr. Coffey told me there would be no more fishing expeditions for this line, his next plan is to send a robot with a camera up the line from down the hill near the pool. Meanwhile the private contractors sure seem to have taken their time filling in the hole, it’s been weeks and as of this writing the hole is still exposed.  The City guys usually fill their holes and put down temporary pavement in like three days.

But all this work on the Beaverkill doesn’t mean we didn’t have some problems this past month.  The Beaverkill is a “combined sewer overflow” which means that although it is primarily a street drain it also can receive raw sewage from buildings, mainly from the Park South neighborhood and Albany Medical Center, or possibly the federal Veteran’s Administration plant behind Hackett Public Middle School.  But the sewage can originate from anywhere between Washington Park Lake (which is the Beaverkill exposed) all the way to the Big C Pipe under the U-Haul building which dumps into the Hudson.

On the afternoon of March 17 the NY State Department of Environmental Conservation reported that 100,000 gallons of raw sewage discharged from the Big C.  The reason given was “Weather Conditions: Snow Melt Event” which I respectfully call pure bullcrap.  That much discharge of raw sewage into the street drain was not an accident, that had to be intentional.  I guess we’ll never know.

The Newly Refurbished Bike Path In Albany At The Beginning Of April (Photo: ABC)

The next weekend we checked out the boat launch in Albany, the water was indeed high, drowning the boat launch and the docks.  At the beginning of April the Albany Bicycle Coalition (ABC) had reported that the Hudson had overflowed onto the new green pavement bike trail that the City of Albany had constructed downtown and onto low spots in North Albany.  But by the time we went looking the water had receded and the bike path was clear, being used by a variety of people enjoying the warm weather.

Other than this quick wash the Hudson has not gone over it’s banks this year in Albany, that is because Great Sacandaga Lake is being used again for flood control.  In recent years the lake was not being used for flood control but was being kept intentionally high for the benefit of private power generators (owned by Brookfield, the same corporation as at Cohoes Falls.)  This caused major flooding in Albany, most notably in 2005 and twice in 2011, but that problem seems to have ended.  As of the middle of April the lake is about three feet under capacity, which means that once it is filled the Hudson should be down enough to handle the outflow from the lake.  

And we saw that the boat launch was mostly covered with water.  I’m ready to throw my kayak into the Hudson but with the water still colder than 50 degrees I’m not going to do that yet.  I suppose I shouldn’t complain, we’re probably in for a long hot Global Warming summer and I’ll have plenty of opportunities to paddle.  So like everyone else I’ll just have to be patient and hope we have warmer water by May.

High Water On The Hudson At The Albany Boat Launch