It Bears Repeating

     Most US citizens deplore what our government is doing to Ukraine and loath that our president and his men are puppets of Vladimir Putin. History will not forget Republicans have supported what is tantamount to a traitorous act. 

     In a few days, we vote again. Before we do, I reprise my post from the day after this unfit, unqualified president was re-elected. Elections matter. 

     A final thought follows this repost. 

Wednesday, November 6, 2024

For they have sown the wind....

 

"For they have sown the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind: it hath no stalk; the bud shall yield no meal: if so be it yield, the strangers shall swallow it up."  Hosea                                                        

        "And they shall reap the whirlwind." I have no idea how many times this sentence from the 8th-century BC Jewish Tanakh has been used to respond to dire matters or invoke a sense of doom. The Talmud lists Hosea as the greatest prophet of his generation. It seems appropriate on this day after America changed.

        Democracy worked. The people were heard. The people elected a convicted felon and rapist, a career conman and proven fraudster who promises revenge. He was elected to the office in which he was twice impeached. 

        The people elected a liar, proven liar. Oh what seeds we have sown into the wind. 

        The people elected the first man in American history to refuse a peaceful transfer of power. Mourn our proud history. Mourn our trust.

        The people elected a man who promises to deport millions, perhaps even some who voted for him. The people, including black men, elected a convicted racist. 

        The people elected a man who admires Vladimir Putin, who has manipulated and controlled him. 

        The people elected a man that hundreds of military heroes and devoted security and foreign policy experts says is unfit and would be a danger to America.

        All of the federal charges will now go away, not because they were invalid, but because the Supreme Court majority he appointed said he can operate with immunity.

        Pray for the people of Ukraine. Pray for the alliances that have prevented war in Europe since the end of World War II. Pray for the world leaders who feared this outcome. 

        Pray for the climate. Pray for public lands. Pray for clean air and water. Pray for the safety of children.

        Pray for those who elected him, especially those who believe he is anointed by God.

        Pray for America. Pray for the world.

        Democracy worked. The people were heard. What's wrong with us?

       What have we done?

       "And they shall reap a whirlwind..."

THE POST SCRIPT October 2026

AND SO READERS, VOTERS HAVE AN OPPORTUNITY TO BEGIN A COURSE CORRECTION, TO REMEDY OUR FALLEN WAYS. IF THIS UNFIT AND UNQUALIFIED MAN IN ANY WAY TAMPERS WITH THE ELECTION, OR ITS RESULTS, MILLIONS OF US, YES MILLIONS, SHOULD FIND THE MISCREANT AND DISLODGE HIM, EITHER BY A PEOPLE'S TRIBUNAL, A MILITARY TRIBUNAL OR OTHER ACTION THAT WILL DEMAND SACRIFICE. IN DOING SO WE LIGHT A SIGNAL FIRE THAT A NEW AMERICAN REVOLUTION OF SPIRIT HAS BEGUN.  HE HAS BROKEN THE NATION, BUT HE CANNOT BREAK THE PEOPLE NOR OUR COMMITMENT TO A GOVERNMENT OF THE PEOPLE, BY THE PEOPLE AND FOR THE PEOPLE. THERE IS ONLY SO MUCH EVIL WE CAN TOLERATE.  

THE FURY OF A PAITIENT NATION BUILDS.  THE STOIC MARCUS AURELIUS TELLS US NOTHING HAPPENS TO US WHICH WE ARE NOT FITTED BY NATURE TO BEAR. NIETZSCHE WROTE THOSE WHO HAVE A WHY TO LIVE CAN "BEAR ALMOST ANY HOW."   

OUR ASPIRATIONAL PRINCIPLES REMAIN. THE UNFIT MUST BE UNDONE.

"Receive what cheer you may; the night is long that never finds a day."

          Malcom to Macduff in Shakespeare's MACBETH

DON'T WE AGREE, IT IS TIME FOR A NEW MORNING IN AMERICA?

SEE YOU DOWN THE TRAIL.

CHANGE, SHIFT AND PORTENT-A NATIVE DRAMA and THROWBACK CORRESPONDENT

TRANSFORMATIONS

   Change can be proscribed even expected or not! Sometimes nothing is ever the same.

DROUGHT

    A telling face of the California drought is Lake Isabella in the southern Sierra Nevada. The 11 thousand acre lake sits where the north and south forks of the 

 Kern River meet in Kern County outside Bakersfield.  The reservoir can hold 586 thousand acre feet of water. It is a fraction of that.

   The recreational activity has been devastated. 

  However fishermen find an advantage in their search, as do the

   campers who have the diminished lake to themselves. Those small white spots are RV's

   From the high Sierra, through the central valley and to the coast, Californians need rain and live with the consequence.

DUST UP IN PARADISE

  The amount of water is a concern, but something this seaside mountain village suffers no shortage is opinion.

   We're electing Community Service District board members. The Cambria Community Service District (CCSD) is "government" in this unincorporated village. Roads, public space, water and sewage are under CCSD care. Nominally the board oversees the function of the professional staff who in turn manage utilities and crews.

    Three years of drought now fuel the latest chapter in a decades long battle over water sources, village size and the protection of nature including the rare Monterey Pine forest. The election has prompted a water paranoia but that is not without some value. California's Governor Brown asked everyone to reduce water use by 20%. Cambrians are as ingenious and caring as they are opinionated. The village has reduced use by as much as 30-40%. 

     This new "water sensitivity" reveals how gallons can be saved or recycled. But while they do it, Cambrians grumble. Catching sink or bathwater and carrying buckets to irrigate landscaping or flush toilets is not what people want to do. Nor has this village of gardeners been anything but distressed by the toll of drought and restriction on their hobbies and passion.  

     Enter the "blue shirts" who have upped the ante in the old fight. They remind the village of the 1990's twist in the tale. Cambrians for Water (C4 H20) rally to support two incumbent members of the board by remembering  how a previous board had hooked up funding and the permitting for a desalination operation until a recall election tossed the board members and reversed the desal plans. This new group, an amalgam of residents, lot owners and business people have taken to wearing blue shirts bearing C4 H20. They've begun speaking at CSD meetings, writing letters to the editor, campaigning for the incumbents and working to marginalize and even vilify the opposition. The blue shirts say the challengers are only a vocal minority of "no growthers" or environmentalists who are, in part at least, responsible for the lack of water.

    The challengers and their supporters are an amalgam of another sort. They are activists who have challenged rate hikes, residents upset by the manner in which the CCSD board has functioned, people who believe the advent of a desalination plant would be a green light to development, environmentalists who seek to protect the forest and/or natural habitat, and citizens who put a greater value on the needs of residents than the needs of tourists and the businesses that do the commerce with them.

     The lines are not always clearly drawn and there are those with even conflicting values. No one doubts the need for water and most admit to being worried about it. Saying you are "for" water implies others are not, which is a bit disingenuous. It appears to me the difference is over the means by which to get and/or protect the resource and the length and cost to which to go to do so. But it is a season when people are not inclined to search for agreements, so they've divided and have aligned with candidates who share their view or something close to it. It is the practice of electoral politics, though in a village. And it is a village where everyone is rather convinced of the rightness of their own view.

     People here are, or have been, decision makers, leaders,   successful in careers. Cambrians are literate, studied, individualists, achievers, committed, active, eccentric and thus produce a rich field of opinions. The official population is around 6,000, but fewer year round residents. It is very much like a big high school.

     The incumbents have approved the building and financing of an emergency water system (EWS) utilizing a desalination of brackish water and treated waste water that has been pumped back into the ground and reprocessed. The blue shirts like this and want to return the two to the board of five. Cost of the EWS is estimated between $9-$13 million.

     The challengers question the escalating estimated costs and the delays in the operation date. They criticize the inconsistency of CCSD actions. (The board began by saying they wanted to allow more water hook ups so there could  be more home building, then observed a water emergency and imposed restrictions on use while they allowed a 24/7 pumping from a community well for use on gardens, some of that water was even commercialized, then it declared emergency levels in the wells and stopped the give-away and warned the community could run out of water.) One of the challengers questions the, wisdom, business practices and transparency of decisions. Another says current residents should come first, he opposes much growth and wants to see the approved forest management plan funded and put into effect.

     In a broader context it is also a battle between those who favor growth and building and those who oppose changes that will require more water or impact on the forest and nature. There are some who want to maintain the village pretty much as it is. Others want to sell or develop lots and build up the population. The state has said growth will be limited until a new water source is in place. Is the emergency treatment plant just for droughts and crisis or will it morph into a permanent operation? At what cost? That too is a dividing line. Is the water for residents, or tourists or how do you achieve a balance that is fair and equitable? That is another demarcation. Should the board use emergency water system funds to pay for a hired mouth piece? There's a lot of choosing sides in a village where interaction cuts across social groups, clubs, tennis, lawn-bowling and pickle ball courts, service organizations, coffee shops, supermarket, farmers market, the board walk, hiking trails, dog park, beach and the drug store.

      And there are all of those opinions and expertise. It's been a little loud. It's been a little touchy and we are finally near the home stretch for the November election, ironically a couple of days after the new brackish water desal emergency system is supposed to start delivering water.

     My bias is toward sustainability and affordability.  Several years ago my daughter Katherine launched my conversion to belief in sustainability. It is the only practical way forward. This village needs to determine what sustainability means in this area given to historic droughts. I advocate for a better system of rainwater diversion and capture, implementation of home gray-water conversion systems, long term large scale storage. We should explore systems of fog harvesting as we are blessed with an abundance of marine fog. Those would help, but they alone are not solutions. Figuring it out will take the hard work of determining what vision of Cambria we pursue. How large is big enough, how much water will that require, what will it cost, how do we pay to manage the forest, how important is the forest, what makes Cambria unique, how do we achieve a balance between all of the opinions? And I wonder, is anybody listening in such a process or are we be too busy opining?
      Ebola, ISIL, mid-term elections, the world series, and all of the other news of the day are being trumped here. I guess we have chosen to prioritize that which is closest to us, opinion first and foremost.

THROWBACK

NICARAGUA

   Earlier I posted on Gary Webb's reports on the CIA involvement in importing crack cocaine to fund the Contra War as depicted in the current film, Kill the Messenger. 

   December 1987, Leon Nicaragua the largest anti government rally and demonstration since the Sandinistas took control. This was during the height of the Contra war.
That is not an ammo belt over my shoulder, rather a battery belt that fed a camera and recorder.

    Getting home for Christmas.  Arrival at Andrews Air Force Base after flying with a US Congressional Delegation that had been in Nicaragua trying to get peace talks on track.

      See you down the trail.

     

STARTING ANEW?

WHAT WOULD THOMAS JEFFERSON DO?

     As a prelude to the notion, is a notion itself.  Back in the early 70's I read a proposal that American electoral politics

would be more efficient if everything was done like a television rating service.  Well it was an idea before its time and not a particularly good one at that, but novel and bespeaking the need to "modernize" campaigning.

       Fast forward to what seems to be another endless and even more expensive campaign cycle and there is a new idea being floated.  Michael Eisner, ceo of The Walt Disney Company from 1984 to 2005 took to the pages of the LA Times to plug Americans Elect which will hold what they call the nation's first national online primary. You can learn more
by linking here to their web site.  
      I'm not sure of what to make of this particular iteration of an idea that has been kicking around for a while.  What I'm struck by is the logic Eisner employs in his advocacy. His dissection of the silliness and over weighting of Iowa and New Hampshire is spot on.
      American electoral politics has been through previous changes.  Information technology and systems have changed our ways of behavior in profound ways.  While the Americans Elect concept may not be the great salvation of the now costly and money influenced campaign process, it is a novel response and statement of dis-sastifaction with the way it is.
As Eisner says the current system is "mired in the past."  He adds "...we are burdened with a system that gives the bullhorn to the smallest voices and makes the majority feel unheard." 

DAY BOOK

CACTUS AND SUCCULENTS
Thorns of another type 

See you down the trail.

BAD MONEY &THE DECISION TREE

BAD MONEY
Big money in politics is wrong.  Wrong
whether it comes from billionaires, 
corporations, labor unions or any other
form of special interest.
The so called Super PAC's have
revealed who their backers are
and this renewed my fervor.
Regardless, it is a kind of buying of favors.
We will not see a significant improvement
in the quality of governance in the U.S.
until we take big money out of 
electoral politics.
Too much time and effort is spent on raising
money and with the money comes expectations.
The big dollar game of politics today
makes the comment from the old
cynic and iconoclast H.L. Mencken
all the more true.
"Every election is a sort of advance auction
sale of stolen goods."


FACES OF THE DECISION TREE

     Over the mountain, in the Paso Robles wine region

a tree stands as a reminder of the day we decided to move

to California. We call it the "Decision Tree."

     We had made several trips to the area, weighing all of the
factors that would be engaged in such a decision. Moving
across the country to an area where we knew no one, selling and buying a home, leaving friends and family and starting over combined to create multiple questions and all of them lead to the big one-should we do it?

     We had spent several days exploring, thinking, talking 
and knew it was time for a resolution.  We packed a picnic
lunch, drove to see Marc and Maggie, who we had been
introduced to by a mutual friend.  We visited their winery
and drove to a spot along a vineyard, stopped, picnicked under an old tree as we looked over wine country.  Lana and I love old trees and we reasoned this would be a good a place to decide as any.  

     And, so it was here we made the decision to make the move.  Since, we've called it our decision tree.  Well,
a few months ago as we were chatting with Marc and Maggie, who have become friends, we learned that as they debated
weather or not to leave Southern California and buy land to 
create winery, they did the same thing- picnicked under the same tree, what they told us they call their decision tree.

     There's a good view from the decision tree.  Wisdom seems to abound here. Clarity happens and the future seems bright.

See you down the trail.