INTO THE VALLEY and KATE MCKINNON AS Rx

   Time and energy is spent, being angry, worrying about being angry, getting active or worrying about getting active. We'll get to that, but first a deep breath and a quick road trip to clear the head.

 To Californians who have suffered 5 years of drought, green is a precious color and soothing. Please indulge these few frames from scenic Highway 46, the Green Valley Road. 

    In the early days it was a dirt mountain trail. Paved in the 1930s, it was a connecter from the Pacific Coast east to Paso Robles. The modern highway was built in 1970.

   The connection with Highway 1, aka Pacific Coast Highway, is 1 mile southeast of Cambria and about a mile from the Pacific Ocean, visible from the crest over the Santa Lucia Mountains coastal range. 

     We drive the highway all the time and never tire of its beauty, even more spectacular in the green season.

    As along Highway 1 and the 101 there are patches of the old roads and stage coach trails still visible.

   It is hard to be angry when absorbing the beauty, or when breathing deeply. 

    Thich Nhat Hahn, a Vietnamese monk, wrote Living Buddha Living Christ and tells of an easy deep breathing exercise that anyone can do. Sit quietly, still your mind and breathe in, thinking only about your breath and then exhale while smiling. Repeat the action a few times. You will find yourself relaxed, feeling better and less angry. If you wish to go deeper, begin with the deep breath and smiling exhale, then breath in again thinking only about the moment of your breath and then exhale thinking about how lovely the moment is. It is an ancient and healthy technique. It can't hurt you, but anger can!

    It is like an epidemic and in conversation everywhere. I've been surprised at how angry so many of us are, present company included. We understand why and in that is a modicum of strength. So many millions of American livid about the political reality and the man who is the toxic pathology of it. It is an historic revulsion and as in medical diagnosis it is a symptom of something ill in the body. In this case the body politic is reacting and warning us. 

    Unprecedented in our lives. The closest thing we may recall, those of us of certain age, were the mass movements of the civil rights era and the struggle to end the Vietnam war. For younger Americans there was the brief flicker of the Occupy movement. 

    It has been a while since so many have been so politically active-writing letters, e-mails, making calls, going to huddles, talking about direct actions and marching. It is a season of caring and politics and we should take care to remain focused.

COMIC RELIEF IS GOOD AND WE HAVE A QUEEN

     Bravo to Kate McKinnon of Saturday Night Live. As the American political horror show has progressed, McKinnon has made us laugh with cunning craft, skill and a rapier comedic genius.

      The 33 year old Columbia grad did a "spot-on" Hillary Clinton. But since the debacle she has done masterful take downs of Kellyanne Conway, destined to be hall of fame bits. 

      Just this last week she did another lethal job on Conway, turning her into a Fatal Attraction parody of Glen Close as a crazed stalker going after CNN's Jake Tapper. She also played the Attorney General Jefferson Sessions and just to show she can inflict bipartisan comedy, McKinnon did a number embodying Elizabeth Warren's zeal all in one show. She is an extraordinary talent and that talent is helping millions of Americans laugh and that is especially good.  

  See you down the trail.

LIMBAUGH, SANTORUM & PUTIN-WHO IS THE JERK & WHO IS THE IDIOT? PLUS LOVELY SCENES

RUSH IS THE JERK 

     Advertisers continue to bail out on the gas bag. At his

best Limbaugh was a mildly amusing talker who knew a little

about marketing from his days as a pr flack and baseball pimp.  That he went from a goof ball to a political force is

merely a testament to how low brow American politics has

descended.  But this latest episode of his verbal assault on a woman has caused many to begin to smell the coffee. Why 

anyone took his views as serious is mystifying, maybe now

some of those followers will see him for what he really is.

He is only a performer, a phony, playing to a crowd. He is 

just a talker.

     What he said was wrong by any definition.  He will probably survive this meltdown, but the trash heap of over stuffed egos would be too good a place for the jerk.  He's mean, devious, laughing all the way to the bank and should be water boarded  until Dick Cheney runs to his rescue. That is run, physically, in person.

RICK SANTORUM MUST BE STUPID TOO

     This doofus is the worst thing for Republicans since

since mold on bread.  In this democratic republic even extremists or idiots are entitled to their view, but no one should draw political boundaries or build a following based on the assumption their theology is better than anyone else's. That's the province of the wacko brand of Islamic fundamentalist Imams who train young boys to be bombers.  Santorum is actually dangerous.  His brand Catholicism embarrasses many Roman Catholics and diverges from the church's larger view.

      Why moderate, centrist, intelligent Republicans have not spoken out against him defies explanation. Even the religious right should sanction this fool.

NOW LETS SEE HOW THE STRONG MAN WILL PLAY IT. 

VLADIMIR THAT IS

     Putin, who is light years more intelligent and enlightened than either of the cretins referred to above, now faces a tough spot.  Elected to a 6 year term, to his old post as President of Russia, he will have to confront the rapidly growing opposition movement.  The anti Putin demonstrations were the most significant public outpouring of that kind in decades in Russia.  

     Putin was an unlikely candidate to begin with. Before his earlier rise to political influence he had been one of those gray, faceless, technocrats in the old KGB.  Putin is smart,

has demonstrated he knows how to wield power and he is tough.  But this challenge is something new. Will he result to old Soviet ways of dealing with the growing opposition movement, or will he pushed to find a more rational way? Regardless, it appears he's going to have some homegrown issues to occupy his new Presidency.

DAY BOOK

CALIFORNIA SPRING, GREEN & MORRO ROCK

     An almond tree in March bloom at the Pipestone Vineyard.

     In the distant horizon, the famed Morro Rock. Shot from
Highway 46, Green Valley Road, earning its name.

      Look at the difference of a couple of hours in the frame 
above and below.

   Shadows play nicely on the undulations of the Santa Lucia highlands.

    One more frame of almond blooms.