the redhot poker or torch lily in our back garden
Winter's face on the California central coast is a far cry from the snow, ice, sheets of lead gray skies and cold rain of my native Indiana.
Here nature adorns itself with festive color and blooms and cattle birth new calves. A few blogger friends have posted scenes of snow recently and while I enjoy the pictures, I'm pleased to no longer shovel, scrap or drive in it. I've become a weather wimp.
As much as I've tried to ignore it, the color of this poker stirs a thought about the president-elect.
Mr Trump you've got to pay attention and start attending or reading the daily intelligence briefings that are available to you. You are dealing with higher stakes than a real estate project. This is not reality television, it is the real world. It is a far cry more complicated, complex, historical and dangerous than anything you've ever wrapped your mind around. If you can Tweet all night about Alec Baldwin, you can listen to your director of national intelligence. You might learn something. Actually you need to learn, a lot. Grow up!
did the russians elect our president?
While it sounds like the yarn of a le Carre', Ludlum, Clancy, Silva, Knebel or some other espionage writer there is now serious question about how the Russians may have engineered Trump's election. The CIA has briefed Congress. The administration now ponders how to respond to this historic violation of our democratic republic. Maybe that's a reason the trumpster has taken only 3 intel briefings in over a month. You've got to pay attention. We all do. So should the electors on the electoral college.This is unexplored territory.
a real hero
NASA Photo 1962
We lost a true American leader and hero with the passing of 95 year old John Glenn. The photo was taken aboard the recovery ship after Glenn became the first American to orbit the earth.
On February 20, 1962 Owen Fisher, biology teacher and football and track coach turned on a radio in our science lab classroom and said, "today we are going to listen to history." Glenn's flight in Friendship 7 was not a sure thing. The success made us proud.
He was already a decorated hero, a marine pilot who flew missions in World War II and Korea. A democrat he was elected to the US Senate in 1974 and served until 1999. In 98 he became the oldest American to fly in space when he returned aboard the shuttle Discovery.
The President elect called him a "great American hero."
It is hard to imagine two men more different in skill, courage, temperament, service and character.
See you down the trail.
Godspeed, Planet Earth. You're in for a very bumpy ride!
ReplyDeleteRick-Well said. Amen!
DeleteYes you have to admire people like Glenn and Buzz Aldrin. The latter is still kicking though I'm not so sure we should be focusing on his dream of getting us to Mars. Better to rehabilitate our own planet and not expect to have to relocate... ps I took Aldrin's pix following moonwalk--on earth! Ha ha--and still have it.
ReplyDeleteMars is a remarkable goal, but personally I'd like to see our best minds address issues on earth--medical research, climate change, new energy, etc.
DeleteNice flowering plants, wimp! :^D
ReplyDeleteThe winter before we departed Indianapolis we had one of those snow machine years. One weekend I solved 5 times on Saturday and 4 on Sunday just to keep the drive passable. There were other multiple shovel days as well. Glad that is history.
DeleteThe only flowering plants we saw were in the florists shop or table decorations at banquets.
I appreciated Obama's words when he thanked Glenn for lifting an entire nation.
ReplyDeleteThey were appropriate indeed. Real greatness.
DeleteLooks quite different outside here, Tom.
ReplyDeleteWasn't he a guy, a one in a generation, man or woman.
I don't know what to say, actually. It appears my country has moved on beyond something I wish to be part of. I feel sorry for my kids, any yours, my grandkids, and yours. Their world is going to be less than we would have wished.
We've had two presidents in our time that might have actually changed the world: Carter and Obama.
Carter was twarted by his time, and his political smarts.
Obama was twarted by his race, the republican party that vowed to obstruct whatever he put forward, no matter the good to the people.
We're now seeing the effects of that. Trump is the logical conclusion, one where truth is unimportant, emotion is all, and appeal to a 'american life' that never was is all.
Cheers
Mike
Mike,
DeleteI understand your sentiment but I try to lift my spirits by recalling some 2 and half million more Americans voted for Hillary than trump. In fact the majority of voting America is opposed to the buffoon. Maybe all of that will come home to roost in some positive way.
Excellent post, Tom. Although my immediate impression of 1st photo was of early 1960s British Rock groups, sans guitars. But the name, The Redhot Pokers, Ed Sullivan would not have been comfortable with that. Or maybe I was just trying hard not to think about Trump for a while --especially not so close to bedtime.
ReplyDeleteJohn Glenn was certainly a hero of my youth, and a respected statesman in subsequent years --an amazing man who got to lead a long and exemplary life.
The Redhot Pokers sounds like the name of a great bar band.
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