Rogue Columnist

Blog troubles

Typepad, which hosts Rogue Columnist, spent the weekend switching over to a different system. As a result, the blog was unavailable for most of that time. Now it's up but still buggy. Photos aren't loading (I have a help ticket in). You can check Typepad status on Twitter @typepad.

At 2:16 p.m., they reported: "The Typepad team is continuing to work to fully restore service. At this time, you may see issues such as blogs or images not loading, or you may encounter an error when logging into the application. We are working non-stop to address all remaining problems."

Meanwhile, check out Ruben's comment on the previous post:

"I started following Jon while he was still at the Republic. The reason he caught my eye was because he was offering common sense ideas to issues that challenged the community. At that time, the city, county, state and country were headed in a bad direction. Picture a graph where the line of progression is headed downward at a 45 degree angle. I must have been really naive at that time because I thought that the "powers that be" would see his ideas and take him up on his advice. Little did I know that they would do the opposite.

"Fast forward to now and we are still at a 45 degree downward angle and we are speeding faster and faster to who knows what hell awaits us.

"As to the blog, I would vote to keep it as a photo and memories site for us old folks. After millions and millions of words posted, WHICH CHANGED NOTHING, I vote we stop the political stuff which has tens of commentors who still try to sway a person here and there. Failure is never fun and I"m afraid that the overwhelming tide of uneducated, ignorant citizens have bulldozed us into the pit of irrelevance."

Living with drought

My new Gene Hammons Novel (a mystery due out in the next year or two) is set in 1936. In my research, I found that much of the Midwest and South suffered from a terrible drought, which claimed thousands of lives (separate from the Dust Bowl). But Arizona had plenty of rain that year — temperatures were also lower than today — and Phoenix was protected by the dams and reservoirs on the Salt River. And therein lies a tale.

 The population of Arizona was around 443,000 — fewer than live in today's Mesa. Phoenix clocked in at 55,000 or do, double that for the metropolitan area (remember, the city then was only around 17 square miles). Had today's mega-drought hit then, Phoenix would have been fine. Even with climate change.

But population growth has long been the primary driver of Phoenix's leadership. On the flag of the Arizona Republic in 1936 was a bug headlined "How Phoenix Grows!" listing population increases and building permits (The "flag" is the name of the paper atop the front page; the "masthead" lists the newspapers leadership, typically on the editorial page). So as of 2020, Arizona's population is 7.2 million, with Phoenix the nation's fifth most populous city — though far from No. 5 in other measures of quality and influence.

Russell Lee's Arizona

Russell Lee (1903-1986) is a photojournalist best known for his work with the New Deal's Farm Security Administration. Some of his work documenting Depression-era Phoenix is iconic. He also worked around Arizona circa 1939-40. Here's a sample from the Library of Congress:

An unknown location in the Apache National Forest in far eastern Arizona.

The Bird Cage Theater in Tombstone.

Office of the Tombstone Epitaph. It is the oldest continually published newspaper in Arizona.

Main Street in Bisbee.

What did I miss?

Carl Muecke illustration

Thanks for your patience. The novel is now completed and will be soon sent to the publisher. A few quick thoughts:

• It's astounding that the former local Fox newsreader Kari "Trump in a Dress" Lake stands a good chance of becoming Arizona's next governor. Or not. I've been skeptical of Arizona becoming a purple, much less blue state. For one thing, the GOP-controlled Legislature passed voter suppression laws, as I warned. And Hispanics are not a monolithic voting bloc. They don't want police defunded. Many are suspicious of woke Democratic virtue posturing.

• It's astounding that Republicans — the Party that Broke America with the Iraq war, Great Recession, and Trump — remain not only relevant but favored to win control of one or both houses of Congress. Trump could win the presidency again, in our last election. When Herbert Hoover and the GOP were blamed for the Great Depression (where I've been living writing the second Gene Hammons novel), the Republicans didn't win the White House for 20 years, and then under the moderate Ike. Not now.

• Similar astounding that Trump and his enablers have faced no consequences for the January 6th attack on the U.S. Capitol. Lake is an election denier.

Read on about this blog and its future: