MATTERS OF CONTROL

     Lana's knee replacement surgery meant I spent a few days at the hospital, a rich tableau for an old reporter and watcher of people.
     One thing I am sure of is that nurses run things. Doctors matter of course and so do the administrators, but the nurses are the heart and soul and a good portion of the brains. It's similar to the army, where Sergeants run things. Nurses and sergeants know things based on practical experience on top of their considerable training. If you want to know something, ask a nurse. If nurses offer advice, take it.
     I'm biased because my youngest daughter Katherine is a nurse and so are several of our good friends.
     Maybe this nation would be a lot better off, if nurses were running the show.

there's a cure for that

        branding and castration in Templeton California

        I take it as my patriotic duty to rail about a couple of items and offer up a solution as pictured above.

         A military parade? Just one more warning sign on the growing checklist this guy is separated from reality,  normalcy, decency and intelligence and that he's acting so like a banana republic dictator he represents a danger to our democratic republic. He's got no politics or policy that we could fight about it, it's just his ego insanity, arrogance and lack of knowledge.

         Scores of experienced men and women warned us in the campaign, he's unfit, unqualified and lacks the intelligence to do the job. He won't even read the daily presidential briefs, he spends hours doing his "hair," comes to work late, leaves early and cannot be trusted.

         Yea, I know I'm sick and tired of it too. But we cannot for moment let this tyrant go unchecked or unchallenged so some times we have beat a dead horse. 

        There is the vexing matter of those who continue to support him, and the republicans who refuse to rebuff him. I submit they will be remembered by history as fools and a cancer on the great American experiment. 

         Wouldn't you love to see this bloated over the hill playboy and scammer meet justice-Batman or Avengers style? Or from a cowboy like those pictured above.

an example of the decline

          It was an item many would have missed. The Sinclair Broadcast group, the nation's largest owner of TV stations, is fighting for deregulation so they can amass more stations. That alone is a topic for discussion, but the point today is Sinclair asked executives, including news executives and local news directors to contribute to the legal fund.

         They are nuts! They are turning their back on 50 years of journalistic cannons. All major news organizations, ABC, NBC, CBS, FoxNews, and CNN forbid journalists from contributing to candidates, parties or political organizations. Frankly, as a journalist, you wouldn't want to. It helps eliminate conflict of interest or the perception of a bias.

        "I've never seen anything like this," says Professor Lewis Friedland of the University of Wisconsin and a former TV producer, "it's blatantly unethical."

        Sinclair's senior vice president of strategy and policy said there was nothing wrong with the request since it did not go to reporters, anchors or other newsroom employees. Rebecca Hanson said the news directors "were solicited as a result of being part of our managerial level, not because of their role in editorial." Ms Hanson, you cannot have it both ways.

        I was a news director at the flagship station of a TV chain and a member of the management, but also responsible for day to day news operations and content on three stations. Journalists and news people always put priority on content. Hanson's comment and lack of understanding of the ethical violation is so typical of profit driven corporate management where the only thing that matters is the bottom line. And it is not unlike the logic of those who can support donald trump. Oh, by the way, Sinclair mandated that local stations run pro trump commentaries, right wing harangues and pro trump news stories. Mandated that! They are further right than Fox News and they plan to challenge Fox by purchasing new stations, but first they must challenge the Federal Government. 

        I would not, nor could I have, worked for Sinclair. They are a bane on real journalism, but this is the age of trump, where someones opinion carries as much weight as facts, science and truth. It's an age where money and lies persuade.

       There are days when I wonder if traditional American values or principles of fairness, honesty, experience and the value of intelligence and history can survive an age of Facebook, social media, news by flavor, right wing news bias, low information citizens, big money and swindlers like trump and Putin. Maybe not, but not without a fight and a full defense of the constitution and bill of rights. 

        The staff person who was tasked with explaining to the president what the 10 amendments that are bill of rights were says he got to the fourth, trump rolled his eyes, used his finger to blubber his lips and that was it. It is a good bet donald trump has never read the constitution, doesn't know what the separation of powers or checks and balances are -but he's pretty sure his button is the largest.  

        

        See you down the trail.

        

WE ARE ALL STAKE HOLDERS

SOME THINGS HAVE TO BE SAID

     Despite my intention to provide only art and beauty in this first post of the week perhaps an obvious statement needs to be made.

      How many Americans need to be gunned down before citizens demand that something be done?  No other nation on the planet has as many murders. I am a full supporter of the Bill of Rights.  The first amendment is my favorite, but all of them are important.  So I'm not trashing the Second. Still something is profoundly wrong when deranged people or hate filled bigots and zealots can so easily destroy life.

       We cannot continue to take these shocks and refuse to do something to prevent them.  We all have a stake in this.

DAY FILE

LINES AND TEXTURES
a collection of scenes where I was struck
by linearity and patterns

In the shot above and below is a pattern of lines in confluence.

   Kelp, seaweed trailing on the surface of the water.

   These are shots of light captured on ripples in the Pacific

   Lines of an emerging lean to

FOR CLASSICAL MUSIC LOVERS ONLY
A CAMBRIA LOCAL

   Camp Ocean Pines, which is very true to its name, hosted

an extraordinary musical event this weekend.  Under the towering Monterey Pine, with window peaks of the deep Pacific Blue warmed by dappled sun beneath the arch of cobalt blue skies, musicians filled the air with classical beauty.  Performers had completed the Summer Strings Workshop under the guidance of the San Luis Obispo Symphony.  Here is a sample.  My apologies the video quality is not more fitting the quality of the music. We gleaned this with a hand held iPhone.  Still, you'll get a sense of the special afternoon.

A DUMB JUSTICE & EVENING LIGHT

EXCUSE ME MR. JUSTICE KENNEDY
GO BACK UNDER YOUR ROCK

     There are good arguments to be had over the Supreme Court decision allowing jailers to make more invasive searches.  It resolves what has been conflict in other courts about the balance of privacy and security. 

     As a journalist I've been in prisons, jails, detention centers and lock ups.  Those places are populated by some who indeed are dangerous. But I've also encountered people in control of those situations who are A)not the most elite of their corp and B)who seem to "enjoy" having people under their control.  In fact I've met some jailers who are simply brutal and sadistic.  Allowing them to operate without control is not a good idea. I doubt if they've read the Constitution or the Bill of Rights.

      What is heinous, offensive and, to my way of thinking dangerously ignorant behavior for a Supreme, is the position of Justice Kennedy that the circumstances of the arrest (in the case being heard) were of little importance.  Read that again, the circumstances of the arrest were of little importance! I'm sorry Mr. Justice, but the circumstance of every arrest, regardless of whether petty or a major crime is important.  Yes, the Supremes make high altitude decisions about principles and interpretations, as in this ruling, but they should never overlook, forsake or take for granted the circumstances of an arrest. 

     The power to arrest, or the act of being arrested, is a pivot point in the very Constitutional relationship of individuals to a government.  Our rights as people are affected by our granting of power to governments.  The individual good submits to the greater good of the commonweal.  This is the stuff of political science, philosophy and theory and the debates cross history.

     In this particular case, it was a bad arrest, not called for and simply one more example of inefficiency, poor record keeping, bad police work and perhaps even racial profiling.

      For Justice Kennedy to overlook such "circumstances" so he can sink his teeth into what is truly an important matter to decide is wrong.  For him to say circumstances don't matter is stupid.

     I'm sure some students of the law or the Supreme Court will find my logic to be that of a rube, but right is right regardless of whether you are wearing a black robe, or being falsely arrested.  Circumstances matter.  They are real.

      Theory is born of real experiences.

DAY BOOK

EVENING LIGHT

      Shooters-photographers, videographers, cinematographers-call it "the golden hour," that evening light, saturated with color. It is as though the light is playful and magical. It's one of my favorite times to shoot.

      The sun acts as spot light, or sets up interesting shadows.

See you down the trail.