X-America- It's feeding time.

 X-AMERICA-IT’S FEEDING TIME

 

            Giving him a month to launch seemed fair, but we’ve seen enough. Seems like 6 months, doesn’t it, since the retread raised the curtain on his new reality show, an hallucinogenic cartoon tragedy. Sad, but it’s real. The USA has become X-America.

            The Presidential avatar Trumpty Dumpty, and the billionaire buddies are undertaking a chop shop take down of two centuries of federalism; congressionally written laws, regulations, balance of power-three branches of government all under threat as the MAGAt’s begin greasing the skids to write themselves fat checks. Fewer guidelines on business, no oversight of contracts and legalities and we are on the road to a fat cat capitalism that compelled Teddy Roosevelt, the 26^th President, to say enough is enough to his wealthy Republican party. 

He called it the “Square Deal” busting trusts, enacting corporate law and creating consumer protection, essentially the mirror opposite of what the 21^st Century Republicans and number 47 is doing. Let’s call Dumpty’s the “Raw Deal” with lots of red meat for the meat heads.  

The clown car cabinet is moving in to read the cue cards as they trash the government agencies they won in the “kiss his royal Hiney” audition. Tech geek teens with no security clearance are hacking government computers as unauthorized agents of a fabricated non authorized DOGE, a would-be Gestapo, screws around with finances, operating and administrative systems and sensitive data. Already government employees are noticing breaches of security in their personal information and financial records. Who’s next?. Thank you DOGE.

            That should be frightening to you. It is illegal. It is a breach of the complex eco-system of the federal government, a living experiment in self-rule. But there are a couple of other side shows that reveal how awful this administration is.

            The retread, weaving and vamping as bemuses himself, decides he wants a new beach for the next Trumpty Dumpty resort in sunny Gaza, summarily dismissing the people who own the land and who once lived there before it became the scene of war crimes committed by Hamas and the Israeli Defense forces using X-America made bombs.  I don’t think there has been a moment in history where a President declares we are “taking” a nation, sending the people fleeing so he can build  “a beautiful resort.” There’s yet another signal of how stupid they are.

            The dried out macho jive artist known as Pete the pole dancer pretending to be a Secretary of Defense brought many of us to battle stations when he pimped for Trumpty Dumpty who in turn had been pimping for Russia’s Putin.  Right there on camera, before the entire world, he played one of the weakest, self-destructive, negotiating leads ever! More disgustingly he showed X-America’s  true colors by abandoning Ukraine and ruling out NATO. Slick Pete may have thought he was truly as slick as his hair, but his entire performance and demeanor on the stage with world statesmen looked like that of junior college debater in a league of diplomats. 

#47 may have convinced TV viewers he was a mogul, but he is an amateur at statecraft. Let’s not forget what those who served him in his first debacle said, a “fucking idiot” according to his first Secretary of State. Have you noticed how world leaders are now referring to the US as the “Trump Administration.” Normally nations refer to each other as nations, using the name. Now the shorthand is the Trump administration which is diplomatic code meaning the bunko artist with the metastacized ego is back.

Are there reforms to government that are in order? Absolutely. Does the person elected by the majority of voters deserve a chance to run his own program? Absolutely. Have Democrats and the previous administration been true to our ideals and accepted the election as fair? Absolutely, unlike Dumpty who sulked and lied for 4 years, after leading an insurrection and who plotted revenge including the release of criminals who attacked police officers.  

The “raw deal” is here but there is a glimmer of hope. This nation has for almost 250 years wrestled with itself, its own spotty history, the rising and falling of our worst desires and our better angels. There have been other louts, liars, corrupt, venal and maybe even evil men in the office and in congress, Trumpty Dumpty is not the first.  All of those X-Americans who supported him and who are not surprised or shocked by his actions prove that today’s America is full of people who are not paying attention or are listening only to propaganda. Or they don’t know history or never studied civics. Or they are stupid. Some just may be venal, which is becoming epidemic.

But there is evidence some of those, who for their own reasons, voted for Dumpty are now feigning surprise or shock. What did I say about paying attention? So, to the 838 Billion dollar savant in the room. Years ago I wrote glowingly about the brilliance of Elon Musk. He is a visionary, a smart assembler of scientists, a man with a drive. In the early days he was focused on making new things happen. Since then he’s been struck by “celebrity,” has amassed a posse of sycophants and hangers on and has begun to dabble in power. Well, it’s more than dabbling now. Because of his money, his tech and communications influence, he is probably more than any other individual and group responsible for Dumpty’s election. He’s eminently more intelligent than #47 who was a TV performer, and a fraudulent and bankrupt real estate hustler. He's richer Dumpty. But Mr. Musk is out of his element in the deep history of statecraft, governance and the tricky, complex and arduous work of keeping a federal government, a democratic republic, an experiment in self-government, alive. He has no experience. No skill like that. 

It is not a business, it is the people’s business. It is not the chairman and ceo dictating policy to a board, it is the will of the people working, even painstakingly and frustratingly slow, through a time-honored process of election, legislation, compromise and a value for the greater good of all. It’s hard, does not always work smoothly, rises and falls based on the character and skill of those to whom we entrust the levers of government. Musk has a right to be frustrated. All of us are frustrated by levels of bureaucracy and pockets of inefficiency. But he has no right to turn hackers loose on ripping out systems. He has no moral claim to summarily dismiss entire levels of civil service. He is boneheaded naïve and stupid to undermine human life and increase human suffering. That is abhorrently true in the case of US AID.

Musk was not elected, has not been vetted by the advice and counsel of the legislative branch, has helped to fire or shut down the Inspector Generals who were there to make sure no one robs the people, bends government to his favor. It is a fact he does not have the power and authority to do what he is doing. Advise the president yes, he can do that, but he’s  become the puppet master. Dumpty is  again the stooge. Putin has played Dumpty as a stooge for 10 years, Musk is playing him now. We the people, are on the short end of the stick. We the people elected this retread failure. Elections have consequence. 

It's show time in X-America. Episode one is feeding time. Watch the rich get richer. Watch the consumer prices when Dumpty does his best William McKinley with tariffs. Watch the damage that petulant amateurs can do, as the right wing zealot cabal behind 2025 play their meticulously crafted evil plan to destroy the American federal government. There’s still a play by the people, for the people. But you have to pay attention. 

 

Signing off from the John Steinbeck home in Salinas. We are way east of Eden. 

See you down the trail. 

A decent and good man, at the least.

 

It’s highly likely that Jimmy Carter will be remembered as the most, “decent and good man” to serve as President of the United States. 

 

It says a lot about present American political culture that a commitment to honesty and human decency served him more effectively after he left Washington. His years in the Oval Office were embattled, but his words were bold. He said things unlike those of his predecessors. History will have those words and his futuristic and humane vision will elevate his status. 

 

Carter spoke hard truths and even chastised Americans who preferred the easy way or who ignored personal accountability. Some thought he was out touch. He installed solar panels at the White House, and spoke of our energy needs and what it meant to our collective future. Ronald Reagan had those panels removed.

 

Carter’s was the first Presidential Inauguration I covered. From wheels up in Indianapolis to landing at National Airport in DC I read Hermann Hesse’s Siddhartha.

The 1922 novel reveals a life in search of meaning. I thought it was a good set up for covering a populist Southern Governor who came out of know where, “Jimmy Who?” to defeating an incumbent at a time America seemed to be searching for meaning.

 

A new band of Democrat, Georgia style, graciously spiritual and committed to “human needs and rights” brought an outsider’s vibe to Washington. In that era Washington culture, the ways of doing business, the very mood of relationships and of people in government would morph when administrations changed. 

 

There were some who thought Carter and the Georgians were naïve. The President was upfront about his deep Christian faith, and some in Washington read that as simple or too innocent. However, Carter was bright, innovative and committed to principles, but he resisted being a part of the Washington “club.” He relied on his homegrown staff to guide and shape the administration, and the building of its agenda. Critic said he was too strong willed, insisting on doing things his way. Washington was a town of power zones and influencers and Carter resisted. 

 

I’d become convinced of Carter’s political sophistication when I met Jody Powell and Hamilton Jordan, who later became known as the “gold dust twins.” It was 1975 and I was in Kansas City at the Democrat “Issues Convention” part of the run up to the 1976 campaign. The Democrat field was full of names of potential candidates and almost no one gave a serious thought to Governor Jimmy Carter. I bumped into Powell and Jordan at a Carter reception one night and we talked for an hour. The next day Powell left a message they’d like to have coffee or lunch and talk about Indiana politics. I left Kansas City thinking Powell and Jordan were the two best political operatives I’d met. They knew more about state politics, personalities and issues than many of the people I had been covering. They had a strategic and encyclopedic knowledge of most states political landscape. They had a detailed strategy to win the nomination and then the election, and they were certain it was going to work.

 

When I got back to Indianapolis and was briefing my news director Fred Heckman he asked me, of all of the candidates, who I thought was going to get the nomination. When I told him Jimmy Carter, he was incredulous. He started to question my sanity and how I had spent the time in KC. He even questioned aloud if I belonged on his staff. We made a $ 5.00 wager. Years later he would recount the story, though telling people he took pride in hiring a reporter with such insight. 

 

It was a different time in America. The 60’s and early 70’s had been brutal and threatening. Culture and society were broken. The divides were hard edged. Carter came with a sense he could heal, repair, restore, bring hope and renewal.

 

The night before the inauguration I was covering a reception at Conservatory of the United States Botanical Garden, which is located on the grounds of the US capitol. Several members of the House were hosting receptions. I was standing in cluster of staffers and at least two members of congress who were enthused about how things were going to change and how the nation would be renewed, when a House staff person passed me a joint. He could tell I was uneasy, stunned in fact, and looking around when he offered, “it’s a new day.”

 

The next day was sunny but it was below freezing and my perspective of the inaugural was with other regional press, which is to say at a distance and away from any heat. My plan had been to walk from the Capitol to the White House and I set off on that while as the motorcade was being assembled. Minutes later, and to the surprise of everyone but President and Mrs. Carter, they got out of the car and began walking Pennsylvania Ave. The throngs along the sidewalks were ecstatic. He became the first President to do so. As I walked behind the crowds on the sidewalk, keeping pace with the brisk walk of the Carters, I thought that after Watergate, and the broken sense of the nation, Carter might be a new day.

 

Things were not a Camelot for Carter. Economics, the Iran Hostage Crisis, stumbles of his administration, the energy crisis and all the rest overcame the best of his lofty objectives. His administration was not without accomplishment, but the sum of the negatives was too much. In the end he too had been taken hostage by the student revolutionaries in Iran. A re-election would not happen.

 

President Carter however soared as the former President. You have read of his humanitarian work, his role in Habitat for Humanity, the election monitoring trips and the peacemaking efforts of the Carter center. Even former political enemies credit Carter as being the most active former President in history. He undertook decades of post White House diplomacy, activism and always advancing human decency.

 

A longtime friend  made it possible for me to interview former President Carter after an address at Ball State University. She made the effort to travel to Plains Georgia to attend Carter’s Sunday School Class, which drew hundreds of people. 

Carter was the most open US President in discussing his faith. He was also a man who “walked the talk.” His life of principles taught by Jesus, his devotion to peace, justice, and mercy, with his humility and his continued benevolence and servanthood was exemplary of a Christian life. None of us are without flaws or. have lived lives without mistakes, but Jimmy Carter was a great man, one of the best.

                    

    See you down the trail. 

Amanita Muscaria

 

         A favorite of shamans in Northern Europe and Asia, the "Fly Agaric" hallucinogenic though poisonous mushroom has sprouted abundantly in local forests on the central California coast.      

                                                    

      The US Forest Service reports the Amanitas was used in pre-Christian rituals in Northern Europe in Winter Solstice ceremonies and celebrations. 

    A red and white bedecked, rosy cheeked Santa Claus, flying reindeer, sleds and chimney's may well draw their creative source from Amanitas flying. 

The recent solstice and Christmas rain in Cambria has produced a spectacular display of Amanita and its cousins.

The above frame shows how the actual organism, the mycelia, works its magic of decomposition, usually below ground. Tendrils and fingers of mycelia range across the planet. 

To stay in the festive color scheme a few red beetles were in full frolic.

   It is a wondrous planet and it deserves our respect and care. Its mysteries are ours as well. You can see magic with a walk in the forest. 

   See you down the trail.

In the season of waiting....

 

        There was a time when it all seemed so right. Don't we hold dearly to some shred of those hopes, even now? It is the season.

      Jim, with the drum, gone at 27. John, with the camera, gone at 33. Even still they wait with me, through another season of anticipation and watching and the seemingly eternal passion of yearning. Those days on Muncie's South Ebright and Ft Wayne's Rose Lane, Colson Drive, or the cold drafty year in the old farmhouse in Cumberland and the "new" house on Lawnhaven visit again, Christmas ghosts, like snow around the foggy lamp post. 

     With so many of others we've learned to invite losses and disappointments to our hearth. It's a good thing, to remember, to reflect, better even, sometimes, with tears. I think it all gets framed up somehow in a hall of time. We deck the halls, with joys of the past. We sip melancholy, we wade into time, and smile at old dreams. 

    We get to an age when those missing from our table, or those who are slowly departing somehow fill us with feeling, a muted trumpet, crying. The young fill us with cheer and kindle our aging imaginations.

    Those who celebrate this as a holy season lean into the circular, recurring nature of it all. More than catharsis, it is like the birth we celebrate. This season is a cosmic in-breaking, a moment poignant, which scatters. Past, present, future fuse, and then go again to their own places in the unconditional, the unending, that beyond the names we give it.

    We wait, all of us, for a spark, that moment when everything truly is right. Out of it, we come away, again, with another shred of hope, held dearly. It gets us by. 

    I live on a ridge along the Santa Lucia mountains, a coastal range that nestles our village between the rocky bluffs of the Pacific. There's a lot of space and few people so it's easy to give over to my interest to see what's up with Mother Nature in this time of winter fallow. I went for a drive.

On grazing slopes, new members of herds. Rain season has just begun so green is still to come. Furrows are laid, so plans are underway. The vines await

    The tidal currents keep their solstice approaching rhythm.

    The week before Christmas and it seems even the land is waiting.

This is the western edge of the US. As I look east we face culture shift and political uncertainty. It is a time for vigilance. 

This season heralds a better way. Goodwill, Joy and Peace will benefit all. We wish those for you, all that your heart can hold. 

See you down the trail. 

   

An early serving of cheer.....

 

Being the year it is and things being what they are, we are advancing our annual  holiday decorating festival. Santa is our big star. 

Take a couple of minutes to take a break away from everything else.

Feed the child in you.

             Do you figure he's still making a list and checking it twice. 

Whether this is a time of merriment, or a time for spirit and anticipation, or the cultural tinsel and sparkle, we hope you'll have a few minute to consider what is Joy and shine a few memories. 

See you down the trail.