Lake Otis Elementary School Wake

 Back in April I wrote about the School Board meeting when the Board voted to close  Lake Otis, Fire Lake, and Campbell Stem schools.

Tuesday afternoon, Lake Otis Elementary, where I've been volunteering in a third grade class for the last three years, held a wake.  They called it a tribute.  

Lots of folks showed up - alumni, former LO teachers, parents, current students, and folks from the neighborhood.  

 

More people were inside.

And the hallways were lined with boxes teachers and staff have already packed to go to Tudor and Rogers Park schools that seem to be taking most of the Lake Otis students next fall.

There was plenty of pizza.

Sweets

And there was a little bit of healthy food.

Below is Steve Waldron who went to Lake Otis when it opened in 1955!

Here's a picture of all the School Board Members who came.  To be fair, they were at a special school board meeting.  The school didn't have a lot of options though.  It's the last week of school

The musicians had moved into the cafeteria and a lot of the kids were dancing to the music.  

Here's a future student, but probably not at Lake Otis.  I say 'probably' because when enrollments eventually go back up, maybe it will reopen as a local neighborhood school

There were a couple of tables with old yearbooks

I didn't get to find out why this young man was at the event.  I assumed he was an alumnus or the older sibling of a kid at Lake Otis now.  But the opportunity to get the picture happened quickly and I took it.

Changing Seasons - Yard, Trails, Critters

 

Our front yard (south facing) no longer has any snow.  The tulips have poked out of the ground in a bed in front along the house.  Back yard still has some but it's retreating quickly.

The bike trails along the streets I've been on are all clear of snow, with some residual ice in shaded spots and large puddles of water here and there.  

The trails along the the greenbelts are not quite that far along.  some are clear - from Goose Lake parking lot to UAA has pavement all the way, though at some points it's narrow.  

The trail from Goose Lake parking lot toward the Chester Creek trail along Northern Lights to the Alaska Native Medical Center is clear. 

There was a guy in a pickup truck doing spins in the parking lot.  He was the only vehicle in the lot.  He straightened up and drove away.  Not sure if it was because he saw me on the bike, or he was just ready to go.  

Chester Creek south (from Lake Otis) to the Peanut Farm is clear in some spots and covered in snow in other parts.  This picture is just north of the bridge under International Airport Road.  

I passed a couple of rabbits near Loussac Library.  I backed up and they were still there, not moving.  

They didn't move when I pulled out my phone and took their picture.  Nice birch bark too.  

There was a pair of mergansers in the creek between UAA dorms and the dining commons. (Thanks Dianne for the identification.)

And at Lake Otis Elementary yesterday, the kids got a visit from the Bird Treatment and Learning Center (Bird TLC) and they brought along a Peregrine Falcon.  The kids were quiet so as not to agitate the falcon and asked a lot of great questions.  

They listened quietly in rapt(or) attention.  (sorry, couldn't resist, it's completely accurate.)

Oe more related note.  We had a lot more snow this winter and the weather stayed a lot colder longer.  For many weeks our daily  high temperatures were below our normal low temperatures.  So the snow and ice clung to the ground far longer than normal.  And to top it off, last year the sidewalks and trails cleared much earlier than normal.  

All this means I'm way behind in my biking.  Today, April 24, 2026, my total is 70 kilometers.  Last year on April 24, I was at 180 kilometers.  Can I catch up with last year's pace?  I'm guessing not, though last year I did do 100k weeks.  My total last summer was just over 1600 kms, or 1000 miles.  We'll see how things go as the trails get clear of snow.  

But biking is back on the agenda, even if we have trouble getting out of the 40s F, and going outside to get the mail or take the compost out, doesn't require putting on a coat anymore.  

Government At Work (No Irony Here)

Break up has arrived in Anchorage.  It waited until almost April this year, but finally, the messy harbinger of warmer weather, of white replaced by green, is with us. 

Below is a picture of the small lake at the end of my street.  (The Municipality had already sent in plows to scrape the ice off the roads in our subdivision.  They even (for the first time) posted No Parking signs every hundred feet or so in the ice berms the day before.  

So the streets were in good shape on April 1.  It was just at the last 100 feet  to the main road where things were bad.  I had to walk through this obstacle course on my way to and from my volunteer gig at my local elementary school. 

 

Looking from the other side of the lake and ice field.

On Tuesday, March 31, when I got back home,  I called the Street Maintenance Department and explained the problem.

On Thursday, April 2, when I was walking to school, there was a big truck with hoses at the corner, and on my way home, the water was mostly gone, but not the ice.

But by later in the day, the ice was gone too and the sewer drain had been cleared so newly melting snow had a place to go.  If you look closely at the photo below you can see the drain on the left just below the middle - the black rectangle.  

This is a kind of responsiveness we haven't seen in Anchorage for a while.  

People tend to notice government when it doesn't work.  When it's working fine, we take it for granted and don't notice the mostly invisible work being done to keep things running smoothly.  

So I just want to thank Mayor Suzanne LaFrance's administration for being responsive and clearing the streets.  

I'd also note that during the winter, the sidewalk snow plows along Lake Otis - at least between Tudor and Northern Lights - were out early after every snow storm and making a walkable space for pedestrians.  

Snow - Still Here, Still Covering The Ground, But Its Days Are Numbered

 

 It's been a cold winter and it's been a snowy winter.  

On March 9, 2025 - there was no snow in our back yard. 

Today, March 27, 2026 - the yard is covered with about a foot of snow.

Until last week, I was leaving the house around 9:15 am in below 0˚F weather. 

Last week all our high temperatures were below the normal low temperature. [Tried to post this a week ago, but I couldn't get Blogger to accept my photos, so two weeks ago our teams were way below normal.)

This past week the temps have shifted up slightly.  My I've walked to Lake Otis School in below +10˚F each day.  Highs have been 28˚-31˚F.  And it's been sunny.  The weather app shows us slowly moving up in the next ten days.

But it finally looks like were going to shift upward, slowly

We're having bright sunny days and the snow is evaporating more than melting because the temps have been below 32˚ F.  

Most of our street is ice free because the Municipality had plows out scrapping the snow and ice off the pavement.  Thought there is a bad spot down at the corner at Lake Otis.  

Some of the evaporating snow is pretty dirty.

But a lot starts to look like clouds and cotton candy as the water is sucked out.

And in some spots it drips.

As I mentioned, this was supposed to go up a few days ago.  I had hoped to put up pictures of Anchorage's No Kings Day yesterday, but having trouble loading pictures here.  That seems to have been overcome and I'll get the No Kings Pics up soon.  

Anchorage Snow 2025 and 2026

 

March 9, 2025

March 9, 2026

If you look closely, you can see a leaning tree in the 2025 picture, upper right.  It's firewood now.  

What doesn't change is the change in daily sunlight as we move closer to the equinox.  The sun is almost at the deck today.  

It's Daylight Savings Time Again Today So The Legislature Has Yet Another Bill To End It

We set the clocks ahead again last night or this morning.  And the Alaska legislature has a bill to end Daylight Savings.Again    [I suspect the link to the Anchorage Daily News is paywalled for non-subscribers.]

The session I blogged the legislature from Juneau (2010) there was also a bill.  And it seems there's one every year.  So I'm not expecting it to pass.

From an Alaskan perspective there are extra wrinkles in all of this.

1.  When I first got to Alaska in 1977 the state had four (yes 4) time zones.  That was ended so it was easier for Alaskans, scattered across so many time zones, to know what time it was everywhere else in the state and for airlines and their passengers to stay sane traveling in the state.  

2.  Besides size, Alaska is north.  In the summer much of the state never actually gets dark.  In the winter much of the state has, at the winter solstice, five hours or less from sunrise to sunset.  So school kids are going to go to school or come home in the dark no matter what.  In some places both.  (Though when there is a white ground cover, it isn't quite as dark as you would expect.)

3.  I don't think we're going to end Daylight Savings time this year.  But I expect that one day it will happen.  Maybe on the national level.  But the legislature meets in Juneau, and as the post below says, 

"People in Southeast Alaska have a real issue because they are basically in Pacific time, so they get less light in the evening while the sun comes up 3am at solstice."

Below is that 2010 post on Daylight Savings time: 

Thursday, March 18, 2010

HB 19 to End Daylight Savings Time

The other two meetings going on right now are dealing with issues of far greater impact on Alaska I presume.  But this is one most Alaskans can understand easily and are impacted by most directly and tangibly.


Here is the table with copies of emails and letters for and against the bill.  










[Update:  I looked through these and they are all dated March 18 and some 17.  Actually this stack is misleading.  I didn't realize I have one big stack twice.  The vote was 62 for HB 19, 18 against, and four had other options, like get the US to change, but not just Alaska.]

Sen. Olson and Sen. Menard listen to phone testimony on the ending daylight savings time in Alaska.  

Rep. Anna Fairclough, the bill sponsor, responded to the comments received through the mail, email, and by phone today.  She said there were two reasons that have real justification for not changing:

1.  People in Southeast Alaska have a real issue because they are basically in Pacific time, so they get less light in the evening while the sun comes up 3am at solstice.
2.  The difficulty in coordinating with people outside of Alaska.  (I think this was the second one)

Other than these two points, most people prefer getting rid of daylight savings time.  A lot of this is about having to change and the disruption that causes with relatively little daylight impact for most Alaskans (further north and west than Southeast.)

Other issue:  Why don't we just spring forward and stay on daylight savings time the whole year.  There area a couple of issues:
1.  Feds, not states, can change time zones.
2.  Western Alaska would be even further off of sun time (opposite problem of Southeast.)

Meeting was adjourned just about 5pm with the decision postponed.

Why All The Fuss About Mamdani?

Writing about Zohran Mamdani has been on my todo list for a while.  I'm finally getting around to it on election night.  

As I begin writing, NPR has declared Mikie Sherrill the winner of the New Jersey governor's race (with 57% of the vote) and Abigail Spanberger the winner of the Virginia governor's race (56%), but they haven't declared a winner in the New York mayor's race.  Mamdani is ahead with 49% of the vote followed by Cuomo with 41% of the vote, with 60% of the votes counted.  

Who is Mamdani?  Mamdani is a special candidate.  He's articulate, quick witted, innovative, funny, and has great charisma.  

He was born in Uganda.  His dad is a Muslim Indian from Gujarati.  He also happens to be a university professor at Columbia.  His mom, a Hindu Indian, and a Harvard graduate, is the world renowned film maker Mira Nair.  His family moved to South Africa and then, when Mamdani was seven, to the United States.  

His  had a relatively privileged childhood - though he was a dark skinned male in racist USA.  I imagine he met a lot of very interesting people around the family dinner table.  He graduated from Bowdoin College and before running for office, was a hip hop artist.  (All this from Wikipedia.)

Given his African and Indian  roots and family's achievements, I reckon that his world view is much bigger and more inclusive than most USians.  

Why has the winner of the Democratic primary been so attacked, to the extent that the loser in that primary,  Andrew Cuomo has run as an independent in today's general election?

Basically he's been attacked with several of the GOP 'epithets.  Words that most people couldn't accurately define, but just know they mean the person is a terrible person.  Let's look at them:

• Muslim 
• Socialist
• Progressive

He's also been called 'anti-Semetic' based, apparently, on the fact that he's Muslim and has publicly said that Israel is carrying out genocide in Gaza.  It's hard to distinguish what people say he has said from what he has actually said.  When I googled 'what has Mamdani said about Gaza?'  many, if not most, of the sites that came up were Israeli media.  

Muslim in GOP dialect means 'terrorist', non-Christian, anti-Semite 

Socialist means the same as Communist to the target audience and it means bad things.  Not sure what the people who get riled up over these terms think they mean.  But something anti-capitalist and anti-personal freedoms, and clearly anti-American..  

Progressive, as Trump uses it, means things like anti-American, pro-trans, and anti-white.

The basic things that Mamdani has campaigned on, as I understand it watching from Alaska, are making New York housing more affordable in part with a rent freeze, free transit and child care, and taxing the very rich to help pay for it.  

So who is the opposition?  This would seem pretty obvious

• the very rich see him as a threat 
• landlords (often part of the very rich) don't want anyone who wants to keep rents "affordable' 
• people who are strongly pro-Israel   
• establishment Democrats

When we first came to Anchorage we went to a couple of AIPAC (American Israel Public Affairs Committee)   presentations.  I was very impressed by how well organized, how well spoken, and how prepared they were with every detail of their presentation.  But it was also clear that they were very hardline pro-Israel.  If anyone had an even slightly critical question about Israel, it was politely, authoritatively and firmly countered. There was no acknowledgement that things might not be perfect.  In response to AIPACs hard line, another less rigid Israeli lobbying group - J-Street formed.  

We saw after the primary that New York Democratic politicians were reluctant to endorse Mamdani.  In part, probably in large part, AIPAC  (American Israel Public Affairs Committee) was lobbying politicians strongly - like House Minority leader Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, whose district is in New York City - NOT to endorse Mamdani.  Jeffries only endorsed Mamdani on October 24, less than two weeks before the election.  

Another factor that some have pointed out, is that older Democratic leadership, have gotten set in their ways - their policy positions, how they interact with Republicans, the the perks of office.  But a younger, less white, less male cadre of politicians believe their stands on some issues are out of date and weak; and their genteel behavior is no match for the ruthlessness of today’s Republicans.  People like AOC and now Mamdani challenge their seniority and everything else.  

Making Mamdani seem like an enemy of Israel matters in New York because it has the largest Jewish population in the US.  There are conservative Jews who are strongly pro-Israel no matter what.  But probably more Jews are concerned about how Israel has killed so many Palestinians and are strongly opposed to Netanyahu.  

In Mamdani's case, electing a Muslim, means to AIPAC, it would seem,  electing a politician they can't control.  

Another group that strongly supports the Israeli government are Fundamentalist Christians.

 

But not every Muslim fits the GOP stereotype.  Certainly not Mamdani.  He's taken his life experiences and charm and created a monster volunteer group to get out the vote.  He doesn't back down at charges of being progressive.  He has clear answers for critics which, he delivers articulately and with a disarming smile.  

As I finish this post, Mamdani has now been declared the winner  with 50.4% of the vote to Cuomo's 41.6%  

He's going to have a lot of powerful people still fighting his agenda.  But he's surprised the establishment - both the party establishment and the New York establishment - with his unique and successful campaign for mayor.  Let's see if he can keep that organization going and and make New York City a more affordable place to live.  

I think he's the future of the party, but the old guard won't just roll over.  

Trying To Get Our Bearings In Istanbul

[TECH NOTE:  This post has been delayed because I’m using a new iPad 16 for our trip and the simple way to shrink photo file size on my MacBook doesn’t exist (or at least I couldn’t find it here.)  I’ve looked at a bunch of videos on how to do it plus more written instructions and was even more confused.  Finally I found this one:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YAz60h22k6c Which shows a really easy way to do what I’ve needed to do.  Thanks Dan for the video.  Now I can post some pictures of Istanbul (and one from Frankfurt, Germany.]  

[A few minutes later after uploading the first picture.  First Blogger said it couldn’t upload the image.  I did it again.  It uploaded it, but none of the controls (size, right-left-center, etc.) seem to work.  It may be all the pics will be large and centered.  Better than no pics at all.]

Actual post begins here:

After a couple of nights in Frankfurt to catch up on sleep and meet Nik’s sister-in-law and niece, we went on to Istanbul.  (Nik is the Ukrainian who lived in Ketchikan who I tutored in English for about two years over FaceTime.)

                             

Above is the Haupt Bahnhof (main train station) in Frankfurt

By the second full day in Istanbul I was wondering what we were doing here - it was all so overwhelming. 

 [Pic is Istanbul Airport walking and walking and walking to get to passport check and then to baggage.  At least here there were long big open spaces so you can see where you are going.  In Frankfurt you were in smaller spaces turning this way and that way, never quite sure if it was the right way. Not sure how the pic got on the left.]

We were staying in Sultanahmet - the most touristy section of Istanbul from what I can tell. [Because it has the oldest and most spectacular things for tourists to see, like the Hagia Sofia, the Blue Mosque (Sultanahmet Casıı), the Grand Bazaar, and other notable landmarks.  [Can you tell that I’m stalling here?  

We stayed at the Side Hotel - see the little white circle, middle bottom - in the section called Sultanahmet.  The section on the right is the Asian part of Istanbul

We spent our time just walking around, figuring out where we were, how  to get an Istanbul Card (lets you ride on all the forms of public transportation), getting Turkish Lira from the ATM and trying to figure out how much things are in US dollars (1 Lire is about .024 cents; a dollar is worth 41.58 Turkish Lira.  Quick, they bring you the bill and it’s 1670 Lira, what’s that in dollars?)  It’s been harder than most places for me to be able to ‘feel’ my way around and naturally know which way is North. The hotel map suggests that lots of places are less than a kilometer away. This stalling I’m doing now reflects how I felt, and still feel].   Below is a picture of Turkish Delight.  Below that is a display of teas in a spice shop.

The second day I determined to do something.  Well, of course walking around and looking at things is doing something, but the next day we took the Bosphorus ferry.  The Bosphorus Strait flows from the Black Sea to the Marmara Sea (which eventually connects to the Aegean Sea).  North is the European Side,  South (I think - east of the Sultanahmet section) the Asian side The tour boat went close to the shoreline on both sides.  That helped a lot for getting my bearings and seeing how much more of Istanbul there is.  But from what I can tell, where we are is the real tourist area - lots and lots of places to eat, from food carts to fancy restaurants.  Carpet salesmen lurking like sharks.  Opening line for most seems to be, “Where are you from?”  It’s been in the 70sF during the day (which feels hot in the sun) and into the low 60s in the evening, with a strong breeze.

Most of my Bosphorus pics are on my camera.  I’m not even going to try retrieving those for this post.

We’d been told not to visit the Ayasofia (Hagia Sofia) - the huge mosque about a quarter of a mile from our hotel - not only is it more crowded on Sunday, but we were told there was also a cruise ship adding to the crowd of people who wanted to get in.  So we got our tickets early Monday.  

Above is the exterior of Hagia Sofia and below an interior shot. The link takes

you to the Hagia Sofia museum site and will help you understand the significance of this mosque

The next day we visited the Sultan Ahmet Mosque (the Blue Mosque).  It’s maybe a quarter of a mile away from the Hagia Sofia.  Here’s a link that tells you more, though most of the links are tourist oriented and talk about getting tickets.  You don’t need tickets to enter this mosque.  

Blue Mosque (Sultan Ahmet Mosque) exterior from the roof of our hotel above

And from inside.  Magnificent!

Istanbul folks, according to the guide books and websites, use an Istanbul Card, which functions like similar cards in other cities.  This one may be a bit broader in scope than most - it works on all forms of transportation - busses, trams, trains, subway, funiculars, and ferries.  Even though you can switch the machines to English, it was still a bit daunting to buy our card (more than one person can use the card).  So this day we topped it off to make sure there was enough money in it.  

Machine to get Istanbul Card

And after Sultan Ahmet Mosque we took tram 1.  I wanted to cross over the water into the northern part of Istanbul.  We rode and rode but never crossed the bridge over the Golden Horn.  Eventually we got off and walked around a neighborhood that didn’t seem to have a lot to offer (us anyway). We walked back three stations before we got on the tram to go back.  When I was relating our adventure and lack of water crossing to Emre who works at the hotel, he was confused.  I showed him a picture of the station where we got off.  Eventually he said, “You went in the wrong direction.  You got off in one of the poorest neighborhoods of Istanbul”. 

Riding back on the tram.

I told you I was having trouble getting my bearings.  But getting lost is part of the adventure of traveling. Fortunately this was a test ride.  We didn’t have a specific destination in mind, except to cross the water into the ‘newer’ part of Istanbul.   

I’m done with this post.  Obviously I’ve left out a lot.  But my problems with this iPad and photos have made this one of the most frustrating posts to write that I can remember.  I’m sure there were problematic posts long ago that I don’t remember.  But I’m going to stop here.  

And, by the way, 1670 Lira would be $40.39. (At least at today’s official exchange rate.)

”. . . we can return to dreams of our long gone riches, our legendary past”

 I’m reading Istanbul by Nobel Prize winning Turkish author Orhan Pamuk.  It’s an autobiographical look at the author, Istanbul, and Turkey. (I’m speculating here, because I’m not that far into it.  He’s talking about his childhood when the neighborhood was filled with the dilapidated old palaces of the pashas of the Fallen Ottoman Empire,  I’m not sure what kids learn about in world history these days, but the magnificence of the Ottoman Empire was left out of the history classes I took.  

This is what people in the US might feel in 50 years or more if our current political trajectory continues and the many riches of the US are gutted, and the rest of the world leaves us in the dust.  

“When I watch the black and white crowds rushing through the darkening streets of a winter’s evening, I feel a deep sense of fellowship, almost as if the night has cloaked our lives, our streets, our every belonging in a blanket of darkness, as if once we’re safe in our houses, our bedrooms, our beds, we can return to dreams of our long gone riches, our legendary past.  And likewise, as I watch dark descend like a poem in the pale light of the streetlamps to engulf these old neighborhoods, it comforts me to know that for the night at least we are safe; the shameful poverty of our city is cloaked from Western eyes.”  (p. 35)

“To stand before the magnificent iron gates of a grand yali bereft of its paint, to notice the sturdiness of another yali’s moss-covered walls, to admire the shutters and fine woodwork of a third even more sumptuous yali and to contemplate the judas trees on the hills rising high above it, to pass gardens heavily shaded by evergreens and centuries-old plane trees - even for a child, it was to know that a great civilization had stood here, and, from what they told me, people very much like us had once upon a time led a life extravagantly different from our own - leaving us who followed them feeling the poorer, weaker, and more provincial.” (pp 53-53)

I’m sitting at SeaTac waiting to board our flight to Frankfurt, so that’s it for now.  

Off To Turkiye Soon

The year I studied in Göttingen, Germany, we had most of March and April off.  Hitchhiking was my main means of travel out of town, though in Yugoslavia I ended up taking trains, busses, and a boat.  As you leave Yugoslavia  and enter Greece you could go to Istanbul,Turkey (which is now Türkiye by the way) or to Greece.  I wanted to do both, but I would have to speed through Greece if I also went to Istanbul.  Also, I had five or six names and addresses of people in Greece - the friends and the parents of a Georg, a Greek student I knew in Göttingen.  

So I vowed to return to Istanbul another time.  It’s now 60 years later and I’m finally going to Istanbul.  Though I fully realize the Istanbul I will see now, is not at all the same place I would have seen in 1965. 

So I’ve been playing travel agent for the last six months.  After booking flights, some initial hotel rooms, loading apps, arranging with our house sitter, trying to figure out which eSIMS to use, doing Turkish on DuoLingo, to list just a few things, we’re almost ready.  But I do understand why people take package tours and let someone else do all that work.  

I’m a bit hesitant to take long journeys these days.  We know about carbon footprints, and I was lucky enough to fall into a life that gave me opportunities when I was younger to see much of the world - mostly I had assignments for an extended period of time (like being a student or a teacher or working/volunteering at an organization.)  It’s a great way to get connected into the local community and be more of a traveler than a tourist.  You are there long enough to be able to use at least some of the local language.  

As I say, I have had opportunities to live in other countries and learn what I could from those experiences.  The world has an endless supply of interesting places to visit.  Bit I've also learned there is an endless supply of interesting people much closer to home and I can connect with them to do important things without traveling the globe.  I hope to enjoy this trip, learn from it, share it with you and others in my life, and then settle back home and discover the richness of the people and geography around Anchorage that I haven't discovered yet. And revisit those I already know.  

But I also realize this trip might tempt me to venture out again.  We'll see.  

We haven't taken any overseas trips for a while and our Outside trips have been to see family and friends.  But the impact does weigh on me.

We all have to figure out how to live reasonably moral lives in the 21st Century.  It’s not easy in a system that values money above everything.  Of course it isn't either or - moral or not. It's probably better to think about it on a continuum from something like evil to something like virtuous.  

The basic standard that I think is reasonable for most people is that they give back to the world more than they got.  “Got” doesn’t have to mean being born wealthier than most.  Having loving parents is also a gift.  Having good friends is too.  But in a capitalist society money tends to give you a greater ability to do harm or good.  

I don’t know how one measures one's moral balance precisely - one needn’t give back in the currency one receives.  Being kind to others is one sort of currency.  Contributing to the improvement of other people’s lives also works.  Passing on wisdom works too, though many people think what they have to say is wiser than it probably is.  All we can do is think about the equation of giving back more than we receive and seriously strive for that everyday.  

The Term "Normalized" Has Become Normalized

Normalize, means to make something seem normal.  It's been used a lot recently to refer to events - like school shootings and outrageous Trump actions - that once would have been seen as totally unusual and demanding serious discussion and action.  

Here's the fourth definition on Merriam Webster's online dictionary:

4: to allow or encourage (something considered extreme or taboo) to become viewed as normal

The word normalize hasn't been used this way for a long time.  

Someone posited the question, "When and where did the new sense of "normalize" begin?" on English.stackexchange.com  (not exactly sure what that is, but the heading on the page is "English Language Usage" and it's dated 2020.)

One part of the answer was:

Merriam-Webster have “recently” addressed this matter of a very recent shift in focus or meaning in their article The New 'Normalize': Is the meaning of 'normalization' changing?:

"It will sometimes happen that a word suddenly appears everywhere. In the wake of the 2016 presidential election, two such words are currently in the ether: the verb normalize and its related noun, normalization."

This would suggest that Trump's behavior after being first elected was so unprecedented, broke so many norms and taboos, that people began using these terms.  

I think the term itself has been used so much itself, that it reinforces the idea that the once taboo is now normal.  

So what's the alternative?  

Everyone needs to contribute answers to this. I'd suggest that journalists simply have to continue acting shocked and adding statistics to show how terrible something is.  And continue to contrast behaviors to how things were in the past and to how things are in other countries.  

"President Trump continues to add to his presidential lying record, leaving all other presidents in the dust.  Today he said . . .Nixon resigned because Congressional Republicans told him he would be impeached after the recordings he made in the Oval Office proved that he had lied to the American people*."

*"Barry Goldwater thought that Nixon’s lying “was the crux” of his failure. That deceit was intended to obscure the overwhelming evidence that he had abused power and obstructed justice." (Source: LA Times)

The same is true of school shootings.  Journalists have to put them in context (so far beyond other nations; 

Source

"In 2019, gun injury became the leading cause of death among children aged birth to 19 years." etc.)  Journalists have to show the impacts on mothers and fathers, siblings, other students and teachers.  

Saying that "defying the courts has become normalized" merely confirms that the behavior is now within the bounds of normal, acceptable behavior.  

These behaviors are not 'normal'.  They still are taboo, even if the Supreme Court corruptly allows Trump to regularly violate the Constitution.  

Object to the word normalize and encourage people who use it   

1. to see that using the word confirms that the behavior is now acceptable, even if that isn't what they meant to do;
2. to call out the behavior as immoral, illegal, unconstitutional, and castigate those who have the power to stop it, but tolerate it - such as GOP members of Congress and the Supreme Court majority