There once was a president, indicted
Who always feared he’d be slighted 
He parted his hair
With a wonderful flair
‘Till his name was erased and de-Knighted

Did the new Chief of staff have the power to crush? 
He was only a knave in the royalty brush,
Against Queens and Kings, spades and hearts.
He thought he’d trump them with just his smarts,
But then out he went with a Royal “Flush”.

There once were US sanctions on Soviet oil, 

With dollars in billions trapped in Siberian soil.

Why else would Putin troll and toil

But for a simple trade of blackmail for oil. 

There once was a lawyer named Rudy
Blowing clouds of smoke was his duty
Where yes was maybe no,
How low could he go?
I think of the play “Punch and Judy.”

Said the Tweedles to The Donald,

    If we see you stall,

You’ll lose your base just flat.  

    And all the Dems will know just that.

And then with a frown, 

  The Tweedles stared him down.

Within a wink, came a monstrous roar.

  It was Donald’s base,

  Which was ready for war.

Tweedle Dee,  Tweedle Dum,

    Donald went looking

    For a Congressional sum.

There was a little president,

Who had a little precedent,

Right in the middle of his forehead.

His advisors would argue into the night,

But he could never see their plight,

Despite their history, truth and pleading.

So when he was good,

He was not so very good,

And when he was bad he was horrid.

Ten little, nine little, eight little Indians,
Flynn and Yates, open the gates.

Seven little, six little, five little Indians,
Comey and Price, plus six times thrice.

Four little, three little, two little Indians,
Sessions and Kelly, now just butter and jelly.

One little Indian boy.
Mattis and more, what else is in store?

Discussions, pro and con about Hudson's recent drug raid using special forces.

MUSINGS ABOUT THE UNIVERSE

I love talking about the universe as we don't see it.  Look at the nighttime sky.  Looks like a still photograph.  But actually it's a peek into a vast time machine.  With many things to marvel about.

First, the light that is coming to us from the stars -- actually any meteor, comet, planet, or any other celestial object -- is unique.  The rays that hit the retina of our eyes have been traveling for vastly different times.  Seconds for sunlight bouncing off the moon, eight minutes for light directly from the sun, Mars and Venus, millions upon millions of years from great galaxies, and even billions of years from galaxies at the edge of the universe.  Scientists say that the universe has no edge, so let's say from galaxies we see that were formed within a few hundred million years after the big bang that set it all in motion.  There is no other scene in all our existence where we can seen so far back in time -- from seconds to billions of years.  It's really a snapshot of the closest thing we'll ever see to eternity.

That's really what we are seeing. Individual rays of light hitting our eyes at the same time, but of vastly, vastly different ages. But we know that most everything we touch or see on this earth ages. Trees grow and die, so do people, mountains are worn down and continents drift.

But as far as we know, those tiny dots of light coming to us from space are exactly the same as they were either seconds ago or billions and billions of years ago.  No difference, WE THINK.  Or at least no one has any evidence to the contrary. Talk about perpetual motion machines. Light is the closest thing we have to it. After billions of years, you get bored and stop counting. Of course, the intensity of the light rays can be diminished as they pass through clouds of dust and gases in the universe. But the light waves come to us unchanged in their ability to reveal the size, shape chemistry of the star or nebula or galaxy from which they left.

Well, what happens to those tiny rays of light that come to our planet?  Some get absorbed into the retina of our eyes.  They raise the energy level of the molecules and atoms on our retina, and that is what produces the signal that our bodies have learned to absorb and process to give us a picture of what we think is the outside world.

Other rays bounce off our hats, jackets, skiis or the beach on which we are sitting.  And those bounced rays run off in a shower back out into the universe.  Probably too weak for any UFO telescope to discern, but they are there, zooming away from us still at a speed of 186,000 miles a second. Remember, it doesn't matter if the rays were produced by an unbelieveably large stellar explosion or from the glint off someone's hair on a Bahama beach. Their speed is not different.

So what, exactly are we seeing? Of course, the pattern of night objects we see at night is just a snapshot of one tiny point in time. The light that started out from a distant galaxy began way before the age of dinosaurs. Some, way at the "edge" of the universe, before the earth itself was formed.  But here they all are, arriving at our retinas at the same time.  Of course, every star, galaxy, planet and comet out there is no longer where it was when each ray of light from each object started out.  Even the moon has moved a little from the point when the reflected rays of the sun bounced off it a mere second ago.

So, if you really want to blow your mind, you need to think about two pictures of the night sky.  The one that you can see with your naked eye, and the one that you could construct with the aid of a lot of mathematics and astronomical science.  That would be a picture of where all those objects are now.  They have all moved.  Most of the changes would be imperceptible to earth-bound observers without Hubble telescopes, but move they have. Remember many of these objects can move with mind-blowing speed.  We're talking about thousands of miles a second.  Particularly shock waves from exploding stars.

(To be continued . .  .)

My video of Hudson's Tuesday Council Meeting. Discussion and voting on many resolutions, including a very contentious resolution regarding a zoning change for the Stewart's Shops and Scali's Pizza neighborhood.

The Jacob Leisler Institute, in cooperation with the Hudson Area Library’s Local History Speaker Series, presents Dr. David Voorhees, Director of The Jacob Leisler Institute.  He discusses “Libelers, Monsters, and Rebels: The Jacob Leisler Institute and Research into New York’s Neglected English Colonial Period.”
https://youtu.be/ov2sjY_jyfk

In Memorium: The History of Black Worship in Hudson
and The Future of Affordable Housing

Mary and I were saddened to see that the Trulia agency just posted a real estate listing for the

Reverend Ed Cross’s church — The Endless Love Temple — on Columbia Street, just below

3rd. We worked with The Rev to try to save it, but due to what we would call, at best, “benign

neglect” on the part of the Hudson government, the Reverend and his congregation were

dumped out on the streets without so much as a thank you for the eight years of service they

provided to the Hudson Minority Community.

Benign Neglect

Why do we say benign neglect? The Endless Love Temple had been worshiping at the building

for eight years, and everyone knew that The Rev wanted to buy it. In fact, the prior owners, the

Masons, wanted to sell it to him for back taxes, but their thinning ranks prevented them from

taking decisive action to keep the “back-taxes clock” from running out and forcing a back-taxes

auction by the City. The Rev believes that City officials could have stopped the clock to allow

the sale to The Endless Love Temple, but that didn’t happen. We agree.

So, the City of Hudson put it up for auction to collect back taxes to the tune of roughly

$35,000, which had been owned by the Masons. We created a GoFundMe campaign with the

Rev that raised $3,000 to allow us to at least participate in the bidding. We did participate

initially, but were outbid. The GoFundMe campaign has since donated the funds to The Endless

Love Temple to help it re-establish itself.

Flipping a House of God

And now we see that the property is listed by the Trulia agency for $350,000. (A $300,000

flip. Not bad for just a few months work. We use the term “work” facetiously since no real work

was involved. What was involved was the overwhelming pressure of a booming real estate

market).

Our last attempt to save the building as a place of worship before the auction was to try to

designate it as a historic site. After all, the Shiloh Temple congregation actually constructed the

building in the early years of the 20th Century. Alan Skerrett told us that his grandfather was

one of the men who laid the foundation stones for the building when it was the Shiloh Baptist

Church. Shiloh stayed there until the congregation moved to its current location, when the

property was bought by the Masons, and for the past eight years was the home of The Endless

Love Temple.

Tears of Joy and Tears of Sadness

Think of how many weddings, funerals, baptisms, Sunday School and just plain worship

sessions took place in that little building. Tears of joy and tears of sadness. Our attempt at a

historic designation was thwarted last year by ex-mayor Tiffany Hamilton who said she would

veto any attempt to make it an historic site because that would limit the economic viability of the

property. Yes, of course, but if this doesn’t qualify as a historic site, we don’t know what does.

Another example of dollars trumping principle. (Pun intended.)

Here is the egregious listing statement just posted by Trulia: “Turn this former Masonic Temple

into one of the coolest residences in Hudson. Make it single family residence or multi-family

(with approval). The possibilities are seemingly endless for what you could do with this property.

This section of Columbia Street is prime for redevelopment. Habitat for Humanity has already

constructed four new cutting edge passive energy homes on the block. Your redevelopment

could be next.”

The Ultimate Flip

Interestingly, the property’s true historic nature isn’t even mentioned in the listing. “Former

Masonic Temple?” Really, that was just a short period in the building’s life. We strongly suspect

the wording was crafted to hide from view any uncomfortable feelings of guilt the new owners

might experience by commercially benefitting from the flipping of a a “House of God.”

Finally, just look at the easy money that is going to be made by flipping over buildings North of

Warren Street. It gives lie to any presumption about the future of affordable housing in Hudson,

New York.

The Reverend Ed Cross

Here’s a quick note to anyone who doesn’t know The Reverend. He is a long-time resident of

Hudson. He just retired after serving as a Hudson Supervisor on the Columbia County Board of

Supervisors for 20 years, as one of its two minority members. He played football with Rick

Scalera when the High School occupied what is now the M.C. Smith Intermediate School. He

graduated from the Union Theological Seminary as ordained at the AME Zion Church in

Hudson, and a few years ago, joined Dan and Mary Udell as a reading mentor at the much

heralded HUDSON READS program at the the M.C. Smith Intermediate School, where he has

expanded the lives of Hudson children.

Dan and Mary Udell

January 14, 2018

Christmas Carol performed by David Anderson 2017