When the fog shrouds...

          Our summer nights have been cozy, wrapped in fog.

      The spirited vapor rolls in from the coast as late evening sun and shadows play across the Santa Lucia slopes. As darkness descends, the fog rises from the valleys and thickens.

        I've taken it as a sedative. It's a shroud, buffering and insulating, changing the appearance of things. It helps take the edge off life's pain, if only temporally and if only in an illusory way.

        We live in a season of madness. We postulate extinction. My generation will not see the end of the whirlwinds we have given flight. Our friends are disappearing. We are no longer fleet. We are increasingly irrelevant. But we, some of us, rage against the insanity, the short sightedness, the decline, and demise.

        Those hard lines and sharp edges of life soften in the fog. 

        Fog may hide things, but we do not hide from life. 

        It seems a lifetime of reporting is calling in IOU's. I am now clobbered by war, disaster, broken hearts, frightening futures, wasted chances, toxic personality, and disappearing evidence of heart and soul. Like many of you, we worry about heirs and the yet unborn. And in every headline and news break is a connective nerve to the moments that soak the brains and hearts of old journalists in the pain, suffering, death, misdeeds and carnival of inhumanity that we saw and felt and can never seem to forget. It is our pass into club PTSD. Of course there are others here too, and some more grievously wounded. 

        The older I get the more resilient the ghosts are. The fog is a cocoon, but only a pretender.

        The Frontline Documentary Ukraine: Life Under Russia's Attack, left me depleted and ranting that a lethal drone should be addressed to Vladimir Putin. Another madman is loose in Europe, again. Why can't we learn from history? And already we are starting to forget. Old news, exactly what he counted on. 

        I had to step out for a walk, in the cool mist.

        It is life out of balance. Election deniers, a radical Supreme Court turning back the calendar on human rights, people tossed out of homes, working poor unable to get by, huge wealth getting larger, oil companies gouging for record profits, fires, floods, and human kind seems paralyzed. Where is the common sense? Where is decency?

        I sat in a briefing this week with a just retired Lt. General who had directed the Department of Defense's  Joint Center on Artificial Intelligence. You probably don't want to hear this, but the Chinese are way ahead of us in digital transformation, global interconnectivity and Artificial Intelligence. As he said the issues are Organization and Innovation. The question is How does an organized and innovative adversary fare on the battlefield?

        The US Military struggles mightily and lags in digital organization and innovation. Same old, same old. Turf battles, who's in control, yaddity, yaddity, yaddity.

        Once some of us were called "angry young men or women." Now we are angry again. As the saying goes, we know where the bodies are buried and we have secrets we will take with us. We've seen how we've missed getting it right, over and over.

       General's also talk about fog. They call it the fog of war, a confusion and lack of judgement caused by war. We are a people at war with our values, with each other, living on a planet that we are at war with.

        The great American writer Ben Hecht offers us wisdom; I see a lot of fog and a few lights. I like it when life's hidden. It gives you a chance to imagine nice things, nicer than they are."

            See you down the trail.

TWILIGHT FEAR AND LOATHING

     Looks as if wine wrangling starts early in California.

     Don't you think it would be nice if all of us could have a bit of the fascination, delight and innocence of a child?

      Going to a weekly class I walk by a pre-school play yard and my spirits are always lifted by the absolute joy and energy of the wee lads and lassies. Theirs is a perfect world, in grasp and humming with harmony, squeals and laughs in a chorus of perfect life. What do we do to our little ones and when and how do we begin the process that changes them into people like us?

      Oh for that time when a dash of sunlight, a couple of old barrels and all the mysteries of life are at your command! Life is good and there is only now!

     With apology to the late Hunter S. Thompson for appropriation of his Fear and Loathing, however the shoe fits. The American experiment is being sorely tested.

    In itself that is not a bad thing, in fact a periodic dust up or reboot is probably what Jefferson, Madison, Adams, et. al., had in mind. But this is something else, akin to a fungus in the rose garden or a dog showing up in place of a surgeon.
    The last 100 days proved the wisdom of the majority of voting Americans, Donald Trump is unqualified, unfit and otherwise unsuitable for the immense responsibility of the Presidency. 
    To his credit he got a Supreme Court Justice approved. He drew bipartisan support for sending missiles to Syria, though he told a journalist it was Iraq, but never mind that and he pulled out the TPP, that many nations had spent years putting together.
     His proposed tax plan is a travesty, unless you are among the wealthiest, but even then the math does not work. Perhaps to be expected by an on the job trainee who informed us all medical reform is "complicated. Who knew?"       
    This we know, he doesn't know much, not history nor does he read. Still, he's referred to the rules of the Senate and the House as "bad things."  "Archaic" he calls them. Are you surprised he knows the word? Probably whispered to him by Steve Bannon. 
     Time to denigrate Congress after failing to reach the self proclaimed goal of repealing Obamacare and "replacing it in the same hour." The Art of the Deal deal maker bombed and now condemns the traditions and legislative processes that have served the nation for two centuries. Legislative politics can be exasperating and are complicated and should be improved. There can be gridlock and that frustrates us all, but leadership is about finding a way to make it work. 
      In his first 100 days he made 452 false claims, as reported by the Washington Post. Remember how he criticized Obama for using executive orders? He called it a sign of weakness that a Democrat President couldn't get his programs through a defiant Republican House or obstinate Senate. How about those pictures reminding us of a fourth grader holding up his art work and showing them all around? Those executive orders are by a Republican President who has failed to get legislation through a Republican House and Senate. So he strikes out and threatens to use power. Do you think he knows of separation of powers or checks and balances?
      After 100 days a record number of positions are unfilled. He's played more golf than Obama in his first term. He's cost us hundreds of millions so he can run down to Florida or so his kids can hunt, or ski and so Melania can have the penthouse to herself. In his first days he's held more "rallies" than any President in history. 
       In this first phase he has criticized and been rude to allies, attacked the Canadians on trade, done a back flip on China, antagonized the nuclear nut job in North Korea, lost a naval fleet, presided over a botched military raid that he was warned against and that claimed an American life, bombed civilians in several places, has appointed a daughter and a son in law to positions of influence-never mind they are part of the trump business empire-proposed a tax cut that he personally will benefit from immensely, arranges to have tax dollars spent on his business interests, says he is above specific laws, feeds on the ravings of lunatic or clown commentators, brags about chocolate cake in the same sentence he discusses missile strikes, can't stop a white house power struggle and his ratings have dived to the lowest of any President in history. 
       After 100 days he remains unfit, unqualified, unsuitable. He's a bully and a bull shit artist who thinks he's pulled the wool over our eyes. Is he the model of the new Republican party or is he a virus infecting the culture and threatening the future? I wonder when those who supported him will understand they are like the person who reached for an aspirin but got strychnine?

an antidote
sweet nature

      See you down the trail.  

POWER AGAINST THE CURRENT

   San Simeon Cove, CA

   Sometimes we move against great force. It must be part of our nature. Cause, purpose, even folly motivate or drive us.

      Lampton Cliff Cambria CA

   Some have reached a kind of TED talk time of life, a point where you actually know something and have something to offer but the expiration date on who cares is speeding and the audience is onto something new. It seems wisdom and reflection count for less.

the tech addiction

    The intuitive part of the human machine hums a need to integrate, calibrate, make sense instead of a dash, made madly into the next disruption. But that very phone you may be reading this on is rewiring your brain.
     CBS's 60 Minutes explored phone addiction and reports the phone is a "drug of choice" for many. Tristan Harris a former product manager at Google laid out the premise in a report the tech industry found fascinating but, like the tobacco industry with medical reports, has done nothing correctively.
      A fellow who studied neuroscience, Ramsay Brown, a co founder of Dopamine Labs explained how they write code for apps and programs that manipulate your brain to respond in specific ways. More than just a tool, our screens are programming our behavior. 

disruption politics

      The president's short attention span and his penchant for changing the subject is a disturbing though accurate symbol/poster of what can happen, indeed what is happening to the American mind.

      Absorption into celebrity, low information, high emotion, no knowledge or appreciation of history, the inability to reason with complexity combine with quick, mindless responses. That not only nails the lout who sits in the White House but the direction we seem headed as we move more deeply into our technological metamorphosis. 

      Unless it is big, flashy, is "trending" or has an alarm tone or buzz, we are missing things.

china?

     Are you among the surprised and curious about the China Summit. It all seemed to disappear when the order to launch a missile strike against Syria came from firebase Maralago. Breaking news and distraction over substance and detail.

      The administration has no consistent foreign policy and is preciously short on expertise. That's why experienced hands were surprised by a summit so early in what has been a chaotic administration. Another evidence of the change the subject/short attention span syndrome of the orange throne. 

      The Bottom Line? The Chinese President Xi Jinping was offended by the break in protocol when the Syrian missile launch intruded on the summit. The Chinese are big on a protocol, but it's possible no one on the Trump team knew that. (There was no imperative on the time of the missile response, just an impulsive act.)

      In another failure there was no deal on North Korea. But the biggest news is that talk tough trumpster got no where on the trade issue or the currency manipulation. In fact insiders say he will break his oft stated campaign promise to label China a currency manipulator. Real art of the deal success eh? More show and no substance. More lies.

paying attention

       As our intrepid big surf swimmers were watching the wall of water they missed the gull who buzzed them. While we get exorcised about a Jenner in a Pepsi commercial, or missiles to Syria-that achieved nothing btw-we are missing more important questions. 

       The lout on the orange throne who sadly has the title president called David Farenthold a nasty guy. Farenthold is the Washington Post reporter who investigated the fraud of the Trump philanthropy learning that the "millions" trump said he gave to veterans organization was yet another lie. As he dug deeper into the trump-dumpster he also uncovered proof of the lout's sexual predatory behavior. Farenthold won the 2017 Pulitzer for his investigation of Trump's financial lies.

      against the current

     So we've come to a time when those who care need to understand the social currents that are slowly cheapening our values and institutions. AND we need to be mindful of the wonderful technology that can also be abused and even abuse us. Talking, writing, posting in ways to inform. Doing what we can to keep the focus on the aberrant and disgusting nature of the current regime. We do our selves and our children a favor by resisting and not permitting this regime to adopt a place of normalcy. He is a minority president and a man of terrible character and he does not represent the majority nor our better American values.While it may be tedious to say and read this repeatedly, failure to do  so contributes to a "normalizing" and eventually an acceptance of style, substance and technique. We can't go there.

    See you down the trail.

AT THE EDGE AND WHY NOT?

CREATING STABILITY

    Old ideas have failed for centuries so we propose a novel approach to fixing the middle east.  That follows below.

LANDS END

    Surf Lullaby

    Into 22 mph North Westerly wind-motor, not a day for the sail.

   Shore texture

 Dedicated to the US Congress. Your ideas on why?

  Soar patrol 1

  Soar patrol 2

A NOVEL PLAY 

in a tired old drama

     Dexter Filkins has proven himself to be one of the sharpest observers and thus experts on the middle east. The former New York Times writer, Pulitzer winner and current New Yorker writer stands tall in my eyes because aside from his skill, he and I share a theory.  We believe what is unfolding in the middle east is the latest incarnation of a war for power and control in Islam-Shia vs Sunni.  Nation state is of less importance than who's version of Islam, fundamentalist at that, dominates.  Our blundering into and out of Iraq only enabled the larger battlefield.  So, with that as pretext here is my magic bullet solution for the region.

    We create a coalition to internationalize the region, starting with the Saudi oil fields, and then internationalize Saudi Arabia, Syria, Iraq, Yemen and maybe Oman. The border states would be Israel, Jordan, Turkey, Egypt and Iran.

    The enforcing coalition would be the US, Russia, China as the big 3 with more power but would also include the Euro block, ASEAN, the Southern Hemisphere (African and South America) and finally the unit of Canada and Northern Europe.

    In essence the big 3 runs the new cartel, assigning oil distribution allotments, pricing, flow and etc to the world. The full coalition provides security and infrastructure control for the new middle east. Turkey, Egypt, Iran, Jordan and Israel become operating partners for commerce, social services, education, and economic development in the internationalized region. 

    The Saudi Royal family would be given the option to move to Mecca, that remain would under their control, but the bulk of their military, wealth and the remainder of the kingdom become internationalized. Some of the opulence and wealth we are familiar with would be utilized to build up the quality of life of citizens of the internationalized region. The Royals would be given a discreet amount of time in which to affect their move, after that they are out of luck. 

    In the process much of the British and French partitioning of the Ottoman Empire at the end of WW I, the bastardly and stupid progenitor to much of the regions troubles since, could be partially erased.  The continuing Arab-Israeli friction gets absorbed into the larger construct of maintaining a regional peace and economic vitality.

    The current bad ass, the Islamic State, is snuffed quickly with Russia, China and the US standing on the same sight of the barrel, pointed at them!

    Yea, I know it's a pipe dream but nothing else is working and I think our hope for the future is innovation, new ideas, creative options and bold imagining.  

See you down the trail. 

    

THE DAY THAT CHANGED THE WORLD

IT WAS 40 YEARS AGO TODAY

Photo courtesy of Opera News

      Richard Nixon's flawed character and Presidency was not

without moments of greatness.  Today is the anniversary of his historic visit to China.  It was the great rapprochement

and new opening. 

Photo courtesy of BBC.com

     Nixon was the first President I met, though I had seen and covered Lyndon Johnson. I thought Nixon had earned his nickname "Tricky Dick" and there was much about the man of which to disapprove.  But when he told Chinese Premier Cho En Lai in China "What we do here can change the world" he 

was indeed correct.  His move to open relations was brilliant.

     This clip from a BBC documentary captures the history

and speaks to its impact.

ACCOMPANIED BY REDWOOD

     Lana has immediately gone to work utilizing the new redwood fencing as an element in her "garden compositions" as I refer to her creative landscape work.

     The limbs of the paperbark tree in the frame below gain dimension against the fence.

     The little trellis to the right seems simple as it
stands ready to guide and receive the vine we recently trimmed, however----It was a joint project, certainly not overly complicated but when two headstrong people bring their vastly different styles of building to the table, well, it was spirited.  If you've been married or in a relationship for many years, you may understand.  Nonetheless-we are both satisfied with our little addition to the, we hope soon to be, vine covered gate.

See you down the trail.

THE SENSITIVE PLANT AND SENSITIVITY

WHEN LEADERSHIP FAILS

       The doubles tennis foursome is a mixed group, conservative, liberal, democrat and

republican. In all the time we've played there is never conversation about politics.  We cover a lot of stuff and it is an affable group, but today there was anger, disappointment and outrage over the sad, sad, political sideshow of the debt ceiling issue. 

        Republicans embarrassed, democrats disappointed, all felt there was a lack of leadership and an ignoring of national best interests. 

        Broaden the conversation beyond the tennis court and I hear respected republican analysts admit the nation is almost ungovernable. Conservatives who are sensitive

about loosing a claim of integrity because of tea party "legislative terrorism", liberals

angered that Obama moved so far to the right and caved to what they consider to be

extortion.

        For my two cents-we continue to spend Trillions on two wars of dubious value, one of which was started based on lies and fabrications and should never have been launched.

In the aftermath however large corporations are making big money on both war material and reconstruction. Smart?  Smart in a time of financial crisis?  The end of Afghanistan will be a departure with a toll of trillions spent and thousands of broken bodies, lives and far too many deaths.  The result will be for Afghanistan to return the old Testament tribal world that is has always been. Smart?

       So we spend trillions there, but we cut funding to education and infrastructure.  We cut in these areas while the Chinese invest. Which nation do you think will be best equipped to deal with the future and demands of jobs of the future?  And here I'll anger some of you.  We cut social spending but refuse to provide a revenue increase because we refuse to tax fairly. In some cases we refuse to tax.  

      How can Warren Buffet, who by the way is willing to pay more, actually pay less than his secretary in taxes?  How can a corporation pay almost no taxes and in some cases pay none at all?  This is while their CEO is earning millions in bonus money because the profit margin is so high?  How can a congress allow companies who are providing no bid contract services in Iraq and Afghanistan to be sheltered in the Cayman Islands so while they are taking US Tax dollars and paying their employees they are withholding no tax money because "they are not a US company?"  How can a congress be held hostage by a small sect of "true believers" who would rather see the nation fail at meeting it's obligations than think of a big picture and the future? How can Republican leadership and Democratic Leadership and the White House fail so miserably at something that has been done 102 times previously without a government crisis?  

      Compromise is not a problem nor an evil.  It is what gave us the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution and our Constitutional Amendments. The history of this Republic is written by leaders who understand compromise is the glue of legislation.

Yes we have problems.  Yes government costs and spends.  Life is more complicated than a simple notion of a smaller government and no taxes.  Compromise is a road map to problem solving.  Not to compromise is to create a government or a state where totalitarian regimes rule.  Joe Stalin and Adolph Hitler were pretty good at refusing to compromise. 

How can such weak leadership prevail?  We have struck a low in American history.  Where is vision? Where is a sense of the future? Where is the art of governance? Where is creative problem solving?  Where is the skill at providing leadership for a nation on the ropes?  Where indeed? 


Sorry for the rant.  But these are days that demand response.

       

DAY BOOK

THE SENSITIVE PLANT

      The popular name is the Sensitive Plant. The fern like leaves restrict and close when touched.  In a few moments they begin to open again.  The bloom is something we've never seen before.

      In these shots, the time of day was perfect to capture a nice bit of shadow play.

See you down the trail.