American Omens, Warnings and Good Signs

Photo of NEOWISE over Morro Bay by Daniel Worthington superiorangle.com

published by San Luis Obispo Tribune

    Looking at the NEOWISE comet the other night, I wondered about the status of life and humanity on planet earth when NEOWISE flies by again in 6,800 years.

   Scientists estimate the frozen left overs of the formation of our solar system are some 4.6 billion years old. We live at a time when history and the perspective it brings, gets short shrift. We'd do better, and be smarter if we paid more attention to history's lessons.

historic signals

     A leading conservative Republican intellect, George Will, made a little history when he announced he was going to vote for Joe Biden. He added promptly that he would also quickly become part of the loyal opposition, challenging Biden on policies he thinks are too liberal.

     Will is part of a migration of Republicans who recognized the depravity of Trump. He predicts a landslide for Biden though he says "a nervous Democrat is a good Democrat."

of cabbages and kings

King George from Buckingham Palace

        In fact a nervous US citizen is a good US citizen. Trump's reign of ruination has become more portent. 

        England's King George, who ruled from 1760 to 1801 was known as the "mad King" and "the King who lost America." Evidence of Trump's mental illness has been as evident as his stupidity and incompetence. The other similarity is his "losing of America." Here's a for instance; his disregard of the constitution.

        Under King George the British Parliament passed the Quartering Acts of 1765 and then made them more onerous in 1774. They mandated that colonists provide "quarters," room and board, for all British Soldiers on American soil. Our ancestors were also taxed for the provisions. 

         This young nation to be did not want the soldiers here. When colonists protested, destroying property at the Boston Tea Party, the tyrant sent more troops to our cities, trying to stop demonstrations and protests and demanded that British Troops be quartered in homes even, if there was not ample room in saloons, ale houses, inns, hotels or in barracks.  The new orders were part of the "Coercive Acts" a kind of colonial Law and Order. In a year the American Revolution was a shooting war.*** 

         US citizens have a right to protest, loudly and constantly. Sending unmarked federal police, dressed like combat soldiers, into cities and states that have said no is not unlike the actions of  King George. Federal police do indeed have the right to protect federal property. They do not have the right to beat, detain, arrest or intimidate people who protest and demonstrate. That is a constitutional right. 
        Cities and States have the right to tell the President not to send his federal storm troopers.
        Constitutional scholars and lawyers warn Trump is running afoul of our American way of life. His use of the unmarked police/soldiers has drawn the wrath of our own military leaders, active and retired. It's another reality TV style campaign tactic by a desperate, sick and evil man. He is a man with no sense of the history of the nation. I doubt if he knows who was King George, or the roots of the American revolution.
        A further historical irony follows below.

        

pretty and tasty history

      These are some of the 60 acres of grapes that grow closer to the Pacific Ocean than any commercial winery in California.
      You can grab a peek of the big blue beneath the marine bank to the west. Ray and Pam Derby have grown Pinot Noir and Pinot Gris since 1998 and have operated the Derby Winery since 2008.

         These grapes are windswept, sun blessed and with a magnificent view of the ocean in their Derbyshire Vineyard in San Simeon.

thoughtful and kind

        One of the signs we are a decent people is the frequent appearance of "free librarys." These book give-a-ways and sharing posts dot many a central coast neighborhood. 

      Further evidence of an intelligent, thinking civilization that dwells somewhere beyond social media and reality television.

history of life

     There is a sweet sense of the continuum of life in having a 
2 1/2 year old grand son excitedly point out a monarch butterfly pupa or chrysalis.

   He taught his "Poppy" something I didn't know. They create a beautiful golden rim.

     He also pointed out the lizard, keeping watch. 

     How much happier we might all be if we could retain some of that wonderment and fascination.

old school lesson

     As we say goodbye to American hero John Lewis it is good to remember he was a devoted advocate of non violent protests. Repeated beatings, almost to the point of death, broken bones and multiple arrests did not deter Lewis from non violent protest and demonstration. 

     

photo by Times of Israel

      The Governor of Oregon, the Mayors of Portland and Seattle Washington have sounded the same warning-do not be baited by the police/soldiers Trump has sent to antagonize. Destructive acts will play into their hands and the Trump campaign. Damage to property will not move the nation closer to reforms and accounting that are due and could even set back the momentum. 

photo by Insider.com

       John Lewis lived into the first amendment "right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances." Non Violence is as peaceably as one can push for change. 

       ***The movement of reckoning midst a pandemic echoes a chilling reality from the War of Independence. More Americans died from a small pox epidemic than died in the war. 

       The population of the colonies was about 2.5 Million. It is estimated 130 thousand died from small pox. Less than 7 thousand died in battle. 17 thousand Patriots died from disease and most of them as prisoners of war, being held by the British. 

      It's estimated 6 thousand British soldiers died in North America. 7 Thousand Germans died in British service in North America. Again, most of the casualties were from disease.

      We cannot escape our past. But we can learn from it.

     Stay safe and well. Take care of each other.

      See you down the trail.

WORDS MATTER & CREATING VIOLENCE

WORD SHOPS

 Courtesy of Kurt Vonnegut Memorial Library Indianapolis

Vonnegut in his writing studio

Courtesy of Henry Miller Library Big Sur

Miller in his writing studio 

     Intriguing as they are these images cannot begin to capture the depth of thought, soul searching, intellectual ardor, soaring imagination and the just plan hard work of writing.

     Words matter. They build our world; hope, love, peace, war, inspiration, desperation, life, death.

VIOLENT WORDS

      I can't decide if many of the current crop of presidential candidates are lazy and refuse to think deeply and consider the words they use or if they are specimens of a declining intellect. Donald Trump is coarse, vulgar, impulsive, childish, mean spirited and a braggart. He is also the leading Republican in America.
     Journalist Ezra Klein tweeted recently "Violence is scary. But violence-as-ideology is terrifying. And that's where Trumps campaign has gone."
      It will be telling but not surprising if violence continues to hound the Trump campaign. His tone has been violent and provocative. He advocates violence even actions that would put the US outside the Geneva Accords. He appeals to racists, neo-nazis and some of his supporters have been photographed giving a Hitler style salute.
      We've seen a few Republicans begin to move toward Trump as others become apologists. It is beyond me to know how any one of intelligence can condone or support Trump, regardless of how fed up with conventional politics they may be.

      While analysts and pundits track the Trump ascendancy to the recent behavior of the Republican party arguing he is the logical result of their coddling of kooky fringe elements, lack of constructive proposals, naked political obstructionism, denigration of a federal government, poor choice of leadership in congress and other legislative sins, I want to put blame elsewhere, as well.

     Political media. The proliferation of saturation coverage has brought us to the age of a crowded set where political operatives of dubious experience and background shout and yammer while another crowded desk of political journalists weigh in with their own interpretations. Everyone talking, nobody listening. Each with their own "expertise" or take. Contrast that to time when political reporters spent more time asking questions and digging than pontificating. 

     A 24 hour news cycle fills time and space. But the tone of political discourse has continued to devolve. It is verbal combat and spew.

     I wonder how a Lawrence Spivak, Bill Monroe, Marvin Kalb, Herb Kaplow, Nancy Dickerson, Cassie Mackin, Bob Clark, Doug Kiker, Tom Petit, Howard K. Smith, Sam Donaldson, Sander Vanocur, Carol Simpson, John Chancellor, David Brinkley, Walter Cronkite, Tom Brokaw, Dan Rather, Peter Jennings and etc, etc would handle a Trump, or a Cruz.  Previous generations of journalists would  not permit what has been said to go unchecked, unchallenged and not confronted for the sake of civility and decency. 

     We joke that Trump is good for ratings and so the hustler is allowed to insult, demean, embarrass, rant and in general lower the relative decorum of public discussion and no one calls him out, until now. It appears protesters are doing just that.

     The other dynamic is how anger and frustration with a broken system-entitled professional politicians enjoying the perks of office while doing little to benefit the public-has welled up to such a point where just being angry is more important than having ideas. The words we hear are anger. The words we don't hear are constructive ideas or solutions. It takes little thought to rant and rave. It requires intellect to craft workable plans and find a way forward. 

     Once there were gatekeepers. Today our future may well be in the hands of low information; low information candidates, low information voters, low brow culture and low performers.

      It is as though the D students have taken over political operations and even news sets. 

BEAUTIFUL FAVA

There is beauty in this season, the crop of fava beans Lana has cultivated.

      Good things are coming.

      See you down the trail.

FERGUSON AND HISTORY-REVERSING SUNSET ON REASON-A DEATH FOR NEWS-A DRY REVERIE

JAMES FOLEY

1974-2014

Photo Courtesy of Jonathan Pedneault freejamesfoley.org

    Executed by an IS jihadist, American journalist James Foley is the most recent to die while pursuing news.

   Faces of journalists killed in the line of duty.  Below is the memorial wall at the Newseum in Washington D.C.

   Most give very little thought to the dangers encountered by those who work to keep us informed.  We are in their debt.

     WHEN WILL WE LEARN?

      In critiquing the performance of the police in Ferguson Missouri, Norm Stamper the former police chief in Seattle told the LA Times the first thing he thought when he saw the images was "When will we ever learn?", the lines from the Pete Seeger song made famous by Peter, Paul and Mary.

     He said he was thinking, "please learn from my mistakes." Stamper made a few when his force was vilified for the way they over reacted to the WTO protests in 1999. The incident spawned books and movies.

     Scenes like those in Ferguson are familiar to many of us. If you are old enough you remember police dogs and fire hoses being turned on civil rights protesters and the media by police and sheriffs in the south in the 1960's.  Most infamous perhaps was racist Bull Connor in Birmingham Alabama.

      The 1967 Kerner Commission report on the spate of riots and violence in American cities concluded that frustration at lack of economic opportunity was the powder keg.

      In that same era I covered protests, street violence and police thuggery.  In 1968 the Walker Report called the action of the Chicago Police Department a "police riot" during the Democratic National Convention.

      I've been tear gassed, and bullied by police, knocked out by flag pole in a scuffle between anti war and pro war demonstrators and I've seen protests from Washington to conflict zones in Central America, the Middle East and Africa. There was a time when it seemed police had learned, as Norm Stamper did, though in his case after the fact.

      Ferguson reminds us there is still a long way to go. There are a few simple things that can happen immediately-

       ---police need to remember that a peaceable assembly to protest is a guaranteed freedom.  And protesters need to remember the good lessons of Dr. Martin Luther King-peaceful protest or civil disobedience, which will precipitate likely arrest, but in a peaceful way.

       ---As Stamper said "don't tear gas non violent and non threatening protesters and for God's sake don't bring dogs out…it's a throw back to Bull Connor."

       ---Stamper and others who are experts in law enforcement and security also decry the militarization of local police departments.  They look like army units, ready for invasion. Maybe there's a place for that, but it's not in an emotionally tinged protest over questionable use of lethal force. Pointing loaded weapons, that look like instruments of war, at unarmed civilians is stupid and dangerous. It is a scene you'd expect from Syria, Russia or someplace other than the American heartland.

       I've accompanied police on armed drug raids, waited hours with SWAT officers in highly charged hostage sieges, and seen officers, including friends, gunned down in shoot outs. I've been there as folded flags that draped a coffin were presented to grieving wives and children.  It is dangerous work they do, but that is no excuse to trample liberties, rights or to abuse people who have committed no crime. Restraint is required on both sides of the line and the same goes for the media.  In our case, the media, we need to remember proportionality and perspective. The sun needs to rise on reason.

REVERIE IN DROUGHT

    In normal circumstances this wetland and pond would be alive with birds.

   See you down the trail.

THE WEEKENDER

THE POWER OF A MESSAGE

   We passed about 15 horrible minutes today looking at the insipidly terrible trash video that whipped fundamental Muslims into riotous frenzy.  Though it is pathetically stupid and attempts to be offensive to Islam, it is also stupid that intelligent people would riot in response. Rotten is rotten so the best response is to ignore it.  Fundamentalists of any stripe seem to abandon reason though and so the protests continue, giving longer life to the very thing they abhor.  Duh!!

BACK TO THE POWER

   At coffee after tennis this morning David, an admired and respected man, widely traveled and in his 80's, spoke  of the extraordinary power of youtube and other internet videos.  "It's changed everything" he said, "there is no control over what people see or how they'll react."

    In his youth, radio and newspapers were the predominant 

carrier of attitude and information.  Those media, like television, represent structure, organization and a process that touches and shapes the information at least.  The internet of course gives all players equal access to your eyes, ears and brain.  It is without an inherent balance, establishment of significance or quality control. And it is pervasive.

     With that as a full disclosure disclaimer, allow me to put a piece of propaganda before you this weekend.  This is a short trailer about a growing issue and a likely problem across the land.  This is a one sided teaser-but it's about something we all need to think about.  Note my emphasis on think...something absent in all aspects of the first item posted today.

Our thought for the weekend then is just that;

Think about something.  Exercise those gray cells.

See you down the trail.

BEAUTY, LINKED ARMS AND MALARIA MED DREAMS

SERENE BEAUTY 

I've told Lana to kick me if I ever take the beauty of 
the California Central Coast for granted.
I caught this moment as I was working on a forthcoming
post on twilight.  The shape on the right is the back
of Mount Hollister.  The dome on the left reminds me 
of old lava dome caps I've seen.  That or one of the
Mayan temples I saw in Guatamala or Belize that had
been "claimed" by time and jungle growth.
ABOUT LIFE IN THE MALARIA ZONE
I read with more than a little personal interest the US Army has suspended use of the anti-malaria medicine
Mefloquine.  It was called a "Zombie drug" by Dr. Remington Nevin who published the report that got it banned.
"It's dangerous and should have been killed off years ago," said Dr Nevin.  There have been complaints that it casued
psychiatric and physical side effects.
For several years my assignments took me into
malaria zones in the world and I went through several 
cycles of anti-malaria meds.  One cycle was with
Mefloquine.  I recall Mefloquine was 
prescribed for this trip because I was also getting a strong yellow fever shot in combination with another inoculation and Mefloquine was apparently the reccomended protocol.  The infectious disease doctor said it can cause vivid dreams in some and it can also cause stomach troubles.
My photographer began having stomach issues on the long
Atlantic crossing.  I remember arriving in Athens, exhausted from the flights, getting to the hotel mid afternoon just as a thunderstorm began to rumble the city.
I thought I was dreaming, but realized I was awake as 
I watched the stained glass lampshade over the light above the bed, "bleed down" into the room.  A loud thunderclap
caused the the "melting" light to vibrate like the line
on an oscilloscope. When I realized I was awake and not 
asleep I thought I was loosing my already tentative grip on reality.  Then I remembered the doctor's admonition about
vivid dreams. I switched to taking the daily pill earlier and that helped a bit, but a couple of weeks later as I tried to sleep on a cot in a tent on the edge of the Great Rift Valley in Africa, the night sounds of big cats, varieities of monkeys, birds, water buffalo snorts and elephant all seemed to swirl around the edge of my tent with kind of menace. Interesting trip.  That was the last time I took
Mefloquine.  Probably a good thing it is being dropped by the Army, but malaria kills close to a million people a year.
PEACEFUL AND NON VIOLENT
The UC system has been ordered to review the police response policy and tactics after the pepper spray incident at UC Davis and the baton incident at Berkley. 
One account quoted an official as saying 
the Davis students, sitting with locked arms were
being violent and were not using non violent civil disobedience.  Have we forgotten that linked arms
is a symbol of non violent protest?

I've covered a fair share of marches, demonstrations, sit ins and other protests.  I was knocked out by a flag pole
being wrestled over by a cop and the demonstrator who was waving a Viet Cong flag.  I've felt the sting of tear gas
from canisters fired to break up a demonstration.
Once I was slammed against a bus and my tape recorder
was yanked from my hands by a zealous cop.  Another cop came to my rescue and dressed down the jerk.  By the way
that jerk was, a couple of years later, busted, indicted and convicted on corruption charges. 
America has been through this sort of thing many times, but
it seems we forget the lessons. 
Occupying a sidewalk could have a principle behind it, but it  sad for a movement to find their watershed moment is
the occupation of a sidewalk.
It is sad that authorities feel that power must be displayed 
and demonstrated in the face of people who are 
sitting or marching with linked arms.  
From where I see things, it seems both sides in these
incidents have so tunneled their vision they have
lost sight of larger principles.
What is gained by occupying a sidewalk?
What is gained by violently disrupting people who are
sitting peacefully and chanting?
Will the Republic rise or fall on either?
The movement can find more powerful and effective ways to shape the public debate?
Law enforcement can meet non violent demonstrations
in non violent ways.
Before the UC investigation is released perhaps
we should all read and recall
the Chicago Police Riot
and the Walker Commission Report.
We should all know better by now.
See you down the trail