Hopes and Dreams - Stuck on AutoDrive

Playing With Food
Half-Baked, Part 2
March 16, 2019

Several times when I was growing up I innocently or naïvely asked adults for certain recipes.

People were very defensive of their recipes.

State secrets were nothing compared to family recipes.

I don't guard recipes and cooking details like others did to me, but then I also find it hilarious when people say, “It's just this and this and this, right?!?” They are never absolutely right or absolutely wrong. So I'll say, “Kind of,” and I hope I will never have to eat that kind of because it'll be kind of wrong.

One of the things people accuse me of is following other people's recipes. I never follow other people's recipes. I interpret recipes. I improve upon ingredients. I improve upon consistencies and flavors.

For example, the second time I made the orange coconut muffin recipe below, I chopped up a Dove Dark Chocolate and split the pieces between two muffins. To be clear, I made sugar and oil free muffins and then slipped in some sugary and oily Dove Dark Chocolate into the mix for two specific muffins.

Music Association: Big Head Todd - Bittersweet

Playing With Food
Half-Baked
March 2, 2019

Cooking is educational. It can involve reading comprehension, math, chemistry, some physics, and art.

Earlier this winter, before the Minnesota winter was an actual Minnesota winter of years past, I thought I'd try to make some healthy muffins.

If you've spent some time reading ingredients lists and nutritional panels, you've probably realized healthy muffins is an oxymoron like jumbo shrimp, military intelligence, or President Trump. The two words just don't seem to go together.

I blended a few Internet recipes together, experimented, and came up with a few recipes for healthy muffins -- with no oils and no refined sugar.

Corn Muffins

Ingredients

1 cup yellow cornmeal
1 cup all-purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp cinammon
1/4 tsp salt

2 large eggs (deshelled & mixed)
1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce
1/4 cup honey (genuine)
1 cup milk

Heat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit.

Put six large paper muffin cups in a large muffin cup pan and two or three regular-sized paper muffin cups in a regular muffin pan.

In a two-quart mixing bowl, mix the dry ingredients (the first 5 items listed above). Next, add the eggs, applesauce, honey, and milk to the dry ingredients.
Fill each muffin cup a little over half full. Place the muffin pans in the middle of the oven and bake 15 minutes for regular-sized muffins and 20 minutes for large muffins.

Remove the muffins from the pan and place upright on a wire rack to cool for five or six minutes.

Fresh out of the oven, the result is kind of chewy and difficult to remove neatly from the paper cups. After a day, the muffins are a little less chewy and a little easier to remove from the paper cups.

Substituting oat flour for the corn meal makes a less chewy, more basic muffin. Plus, increasing natural flavorings doesn't hurt either.

Orange Coconut Muffins

Ingredients

1 cup oat flour
1 cup all-purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
2 tsp cinammon
1/4 tsp salt

2 large eggs (deshelled & mixed)
1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce
1/4 cup honey (genuine)
1 cup milk

1/4 cup grated orange peel (orange zest)
1/2 cup unsweetened coconut

Heat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit.

Put six large paper muffin cups in a large muffin cup pan and two or three regular-sized paper muffin cups in a regular muffin pan.

In a two-quart mixing bowl, mix the dry ingredients (the first 5 items listed above). Next, add the eggs, applesauce, honey, and milk to the dry ingredients.
Then add the grated orange peel and the coconut, adding some to the tops of each muffin. Fill each muffin cup a little over half full.
Place the muffin pans in the middle of the oven and bake 15 minutes for regular-sized muffins and 20 minutes for large muffins.

Remove the muffins from the pan and place upright on a wire rack to cool for five or six minutes.

Music Association: Gerry Rafferty - Baker Street

Hopes and Dreams

Cycles of History
Native American Tribes - US Government (and State) Relations
February 20, 2019

Sovereignty Day at the Minnesota Capitol was a lesson in the evolving, sometimes devolving, relations between Native American Tribes and the U.S. government and state governments. An urgency for understanding the background of the intergovernmental relations was conveyed by the intertwined morning presentations from Professor Tadd Johnson (Boise Forte Tribe & University of Minnesota Duluth) and Rebecca Crooks-Stratton (Shakopee Mdewakanton Community Secretary/Treasurer).

According to my notes, there have been six periods of relations between Native American Tribes and the U.S. Government (and states): Tribal Nations (pre-U.S.), Removal, Allotment and Assimilation, Reorganization, Termination, and Self-Determination.

Under the U.S. Constitution Article 1, Section 10 -“No State shall enter any treaty...” (This comes right after “no Person holding any Office... shall... accept any present, Emolument... of any kind whatever, from any King, Prince, or foreign State.”) Article 2, Section 2 - [The President shall have the Power] “to make Treaties, provided two thirds of the Senators present concur...” Article 2, Section 8 - “The Congress shall have the Power... To regulate Commerce with foreign Nations ... and with the Indian Tribes... ”

2 - Removal

1823 - Johnson v. M'Intosh - private citizens could not purchase land from Native Americans

1831 - Cherokee Nation v. Georgia - the Cherokee nation was like a ward to the United States

1832 - Worchester v. Georgia - laid out the relationship between tribes and the state and federal governments, stating that the federal government was the sole authority to deal with Native American Tribes

1871 - Indian Appropriations Act - end of treaty making
       U.S. House determined it set policy regarding Native Americans

3 - Allotment and Assimilation Period

boarding school period - 16 schools in Minnesota
       with graveyards next to them for all the children who died of tuberculosis

1886 - United States v. Kagama

1887 - Dawes Act - allotment act
       land ownership or surplus lands

1889 - Nelson Act (MN Gov. Knute Nelson)
       timber lands on reservations
       lands owned by Diamond Match

1890 - December 29, 1890 - Wounded Knee Massacre, Wounded Knee Creek, SD

1896 - bill of rights don't apply to natives (until 1968)

1903 - Lone Wolf v. Hitchcock (Secretary of Interior)
       abrogate a treaty
       plenary power

1906 - Burke Act - give up lands
       2/3rds of Indian land fell into non-Indian hands

WWI - 9,000-12,000 Native Americans enlisted in the U.S. Army were not U.S. citizens

1924 - Native Americans are U.S. citizens (right to vote)

4 - Reorganization

1928 - Meriam Report - Allotments are not working report

1934 - Indian Reorganization Act
       trust status in perpetuity
       encourage tribes to have constitutions

1941 - Felix Cohen, Handbook on Federal Indian Law (pdf)

5 - Termination Period

1953 - Termination Policy
       end many individual tribes - starting with the Menominee

1953 - Public Law 280
       criminal laws of 5 states apply to Indians

1956 - Indian Relocation Act
       move natives from rural to cities (with promises of skills training)

1968 - Indian Civil Rights Act
       Bill of Rights for Native Americans

1970 - Nixon tells Congress termination wasn't working

1973 - Wounded Knee siege - AIM v. Richard Wilson & broken treaties

1973 - reversed Terminations starting with the Menominee tribe

6 - Self-Determination

1975 - Indian Self-Determination Act
       tribes taking over federal programs

1978 - Santa Clara Supreme Court
       no civil rights cases before the court

1978 - Indian Child Welfare Act

1987 - Cabazon v. California
       Native American gaming

1988 - Indian Gaming Regulatory Act
       class 1 - moccasin games
       class 2 - bingo, pull tabs
       class 3 - video slots, blackjack
                 states & tribes regulate
       waiver of Johnson Act to allow gambling on reservations
       gaming money goes to - tribal governance, charitable operations, economic opportunity

1990 - Native American Graves Repatriation Act
       34,000 Native American burial remains & artifacts found in Smithsonian & other museums

1994 - Congress makes self-governance the law
       close to 50% of tribes are covered
       Federally Recognized Indian Tribe List Act

2015 - MN-Dot County Road 101 project through Native American burial mounds

2017 - MN-Dot Hwy 23 project through a Native American cemetery

When addressing issues in state departments and the Minnesota Legislature, remember to consult the tribes.

Music Association: Cher - If I Could Turn Back Time

Native American Tribal Leaders meet Minnesota Representatives

The picture above shows Speaker of the House of Representatives Melissa Hortman with 11 Native American tribal leaders:

Kevin Jensvold, Upper Sioux Community
Charlie Vig, Shakopee Mdewakanton
Shelley Buck, Prairie Island Indian Community
Robert Larsen, Lower Sioux Community
Sam Strong, Red Lake Nation
Alan Roy, White Earth Nation
Cathy Chavers, Boise Forte Band of Chippewa
Melanie Benjamin, Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe
Marie Spry, Grand Portage Band of Lake Superior Chippewa
Faron Jackson of Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe
Kevin Dupuis, Fond du Lac Band

Tribal leaders are looking for better relations with Minnesota state and local governments, respect of tribal sovereignty, treaties honored, as well as issues specific to individual tribes, such as foster care on the Grand Portage reservation.

Music Association: Northern Wind - Campfire

Hopes and Dreams

Another Trump Schedule Leaked!
Leaker Undetoured By Threats
February 11, 2019

Another schedule of President Trump's lack of activities (pdf & txt) was published yesterday by Axios.com covering Monday, February 4 through Thursday, February 8, a full Trump Administration week.

Monday's schedule had four hours and fifteen minutes of executive time (upright naps). On Tuesday, Trump had seven hours and fifteen minutes of executive time. On Wednesday, he had six hours and forty-five minutes of executive time. Thursday had three hours and forty-five minutes of executive time.

The leaker of the schedules said:

“They can't blackmail me with an investigation. If they want to blackmail me, they have to get in line. The Russians are in line. The Russians love lines. Nobody does lines better than the Russians. The schedules show how busy I... this White House is... no White House has ever been busier.”

Music Association: Enya - Only Time

Trump's Schedule Leaked!
Description of #1 Suspect!
February 10, 2019

The White House is slowly investigating the leak of President Trump's schedule (pdf) from late 2018 and into February 2019.
Trump helmet hair weave

A redacted version of the President's schedule was posted by Axios.com a week ago. The administration is embarrassed because the schedule shows vast stretches of “executive time” (upright naps) in the Oval Office. Most days start with executive time from 8am to 11am, after the oldest President gets dressed, weaves the helmet hair, and takes the elevator down. There's a short meeting with the chief of staff or someone. Lunch in the private dining room takes an hour, followed by at least 15 minutes more of executive time. The President's hair helmet and suit prevent horizontal naps. Everything would get mussed up. The schedule shows the President has spent around 60 percent (297 hours and 15 minutes out of 502 hours) of his schedule on unstructured “executive time.”

The White House has a description of the leaker: 72 year old male with day glow orange skin and an i-Phone he refused to give up despite security risks (eavesdropping). The White House does not believe the leaker knew what he was doing and does not believe the leaker intended malice toward the President. The White House is hesitant to have the FBI investigate the leaker.

Neither the Republicans nor the Democrats are concerned about how much down time President Trump has.

The Republicans have been willing to ignore everything about Donald Trump so long as he signs their bills and executive orders.

The Democrats want less presidenting from President Trump anyway. They would recommend more sleep for Trump, not less.

President Trump's executive time in the oval office