November ALO News comes to you in mid-December and with that of course holiday greetings are in order. Loyal readers of the ALO news are well aware of the traditional Christmas greeting originated by Uncle Jack Angstman long ago. Cousin Kathy Balfanz apparently reads the News, because she sent the above sign which is now a prominent holiday decoration at the Angstman house. For those new to this tradition, Jack used to greet folks with “Merry Christmas forever, just in case.”
Jack had other endearing qualities, such as wearing bib overalls almost every day of his life. Here, at about age 8, he displays his bibs on a fishing trip to Sandy lake, a couple of miles from the Angstman farm with twin brothers Ralph (left) and George (right), and Ezra (Pete), the shy little guy who was the youngest of 11 brothers and was later known as Dad.
Anchorage promises to have an extremely white Christmas, receiving about 4 feet of snow in December resulting in sidewalks that look like this.
The snow arrived too quickly for the city crews to keep up and travel has been difficult. Many streets went days without plowing, and after they were plowed, they were often very narrow, sometimes down to one lane. Fortunately the nearby Park Strip, pictured above, has its walkways cleared before 8 am most days, so the daily 5 mile walks have continued.
Trump Trial Update
Last month the News featured a report from the Trump tax trial in New York City, which resulted in a conviction for tax fraud on many counts. This article includes an interview with a juror that confirms many of the thoughts conveyed here last month about courtroom impressions from New York - "Inside the Jury Room for the Trump Org Criminal Trial" (The Daily Beast). Things are heating up for Donald Trump. Some Jan 6 rioters were convicted of sedition and face long jail terms. That might cause some of them to cooperate with the government which can’t be good news for the former president. Lots of people are looking at his role in the Jan 6th riot, and most pundits believe he will be charged. Here is Trump’s latest comment about the people investigating him.
"Our Country is SICK inside, very much like a person dying of Cancer [sic]. The Crooked FBI, the so-called Department of 'Justice,' and 'Intelligence,' all parts of the Democrat Party and system, is the Cancer...These Weaponized Thugs and Tyrants must be dealt with, or our once great and beautiful Country will die!!!" [Donald Trump]
That language is quite similar to the language he used before the Jan. 6th riot. There are plenty of kooks in the US that would take those words as encouragement to attack members of the FBI or the DOJ. And they would claim that their hero encouraged them. Or is he a superhero??
It’s hard to say which is worse, a former president selling trading cards for $99 a set, or eager fans spending about $4 million to buy them all. When Steve Bannon criticizes Trump, you know he has gone too far - "I can't do this anymore," Mr. Bannon said on his War Room program while speaking with former Trump advisers Steve Cortes and Sebastion Gorka about the trading cards, which were widely criticized by other former Trump supporters as well. Bannon suggested whoever urged Trump to issue the cards should be fired.
Even more bizarre is this article by Newt Gingrich. Gingrich is a hardcore conservative and read what he has to say about Biden - "Newt Gingrich warns Republicans that Joe Biden is winning the fight" [The Guardian].
Chief Eddie Hoffman
Chief Eddie Hoffman Day falls in early December and this documentary created by John McDonald made the rounds to mark the day - "Edward Hoffman: The Once and Only Chief."
If you can’t take the time to watch the whole thing at least catch his first rant at AFN. Eddie was Bethel’s loudest spokesman for many years, and he took on many important folks with his stalwart positions on political issues. As a former client of ALO, he was a frequent visitor at the office. One such visit was especially memorable. Some visiting Federal official was in Bethel to discuss an important issue, and Eddie collared him at a meeting and brought him to ALO for a conference. The official agreed, and walked in with Eddie. This was an unannounced visit, and the subject matter had nothing to do with ALO. It seemed that Eddie wanted the visitor to think there was special significance to his comments because there was a lawyer on the other side of the desk. As soon as they sat down, Eddie started in with his rant which continued at a high volume for at least 20 minutes. Despite the high volume, it was difficult to follow Eddie’s line of reasoning, if in fact there was any reasoning. The federal official endured the rant without saying much because he hardly was given a chance to talk. When Eddie was done, he got up to leave and walked by Sue Angstman in the outer office, which was just a few feet from where the rant was delivered. Eddie sensed that Sue had heard the whole spiel and decided to enlighten her a bit more on the subject. His exact quote to her was “That just shows when we start something, we don’t finish it.” With that he marched out, and the rant was over.
ALO Update
ALO settled one case recently. A client was seated in a small aircraft that departed a nearby village, and her seat was not properly attached to the floor. When the aircraft got airborne and banked to turn, the seat tipped over putting her on the floor. With the help of other passengers, she was able to get unstrapped, and made it to another seat eventually. While her injuries were minor, her level of distress was high as any passenger in a small plane could imagine. It was learned that the same airline had another passenger seat tip over months earlier, which suggests the company needs a refresher course on pre-flight prep.
Mandatory Moose
The month’s Mandatory Moose was taking a stroll through a nearby Anchorage neighborhood.
Here is an unusual buck that showed up at the feeder on the farm. The large side of his uneven antlers is among the biggest to appear on camera at the farm.
Old friend Mary Adams posted this thought about walking, which is good advice.
Speaking of walking, Connor Bog is a wonderful dog park near the airport in Anchorage. It is at least a couple hundred acres, and it has an established 3 mile loop trail with numerous side trails through the woods. There are many moose that frequent the park, and most are very used to people and dogs and hardly notice when they pass. Here is an example from last week, with Jack and I about 30 feet from the moose.
But if you plan to use a dog park, here is some good advice.
Disenchanted
The Wall Street Journal has for many years been the conservative voice of big business in American. The Journal has become increasingly disenchanted with the extreme right-wing element of the Republican party, especially in the House of Representatives. It is shocking to hear this quote directly from the Journal. "Too many House Republicans are too dimwitted to understand the uses of power and how to wield it. They'd rather rage against the machine to no useful effect,"
Budding Artist
Finally, a grandkid update. Ada is into artwork. She colors, draws, and paints much of the time. Here is an example of her artwork at age 4.
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