INTOLERABLE

Fiscalini Preserve Cambria Ca

intolerable

    What a transsexual California inmate and Donald Trump are doing is intolerable. Our explanation is on the way, but first....

for the love of the game

Photo by Greg Baker, Associated Press, China

      Under assault by all manner of absurdity we can shelter safe in the glow of this extraordinary image captured by Greg Baker on assignment for the AP in China. These lads have fashioned a basketball court near a community encampment in a cave.

     That the game James Naismith created at a YMCA in 1891 has penetrated deep into China is hope for this world.

      Naismith a Canadian-American, the son of immigrants from Scotland was a physician, chaplain and physical educator. He was 30 when he invented basketball in Massachusetts. He said in the first game the boys began tackling, kicking and fighting, ending up in a free for all. He changed a few rules and the game evolved. It became a kind of religion in Indiana.

     Most large high school field houses and gyms are in Indiana the state that provided the truth for the movie Hoosiers. I shoveled snow and ice encrusted driveways to play in the dead of winter wearing galoshes, stocking caps and gloves. We played on uneven alleys with busted cement and one with a hill, in barns-dirt floor and barn flooring-uneven bounces, but we never played in a cave. 

     Good things can happen when a game, like basketball, is part of our international conversation. Is it possible to have too much in common with our planetary brothers and sisters?

intolerable, continued

    Given the narcissism it's simple to understand why Trump would be displeased by the fact Vladimir Putin directed a campaign to defeat and discredit Hilary Clinton and to elect him. He does not want to accept that his election is illegitimate. I presume he wants to believe the outcome was of his own doing. Truth interrupts Trump's pipe dream. 

     Putin manipulated the American election but still a majority of voters rejected the vulgarian. He is not only a minority President, but his administration will always be regarded as illegitimate. That's not the worst of it.

    Trump has openly demeaned and ridiculed our intelligence community. As a journalist with familiarity I understand the community is neither perfect, nor has it always been right but it, like everything else in government, is a human endeavor. And successes go without credit. What is different here is the unanimity of the multi agency community, where competition and budget envy exist. The truth, the findings, the facts are a bitter bill for a man of his character. A President may have differences and criticisms with his intelligence agencies, but they should be a matter for private conversations. Doing otherwise is stupid, disrespectful and is dangerous. It accomplishes precisely what Mr Putin delights in, seeing our nation loose confidence in itself and it's ways. 

     The Russian cyber operation was designed to cause Americans to loose faith in their government. Donald Trump is trying to make that happen. He operates as a Russian stooge. We are witnessing an historic open war between the man to be inaugurated and the American intelligence and security community. What could go wrong?

   There is at lest hapless Mike Pence. He's been around long enough to know. He's back pedaled on some of Trump's statements, trying to bring a touch of big boy reality to Donnie's "I know more than they do" bluster and nonsense. We are about to turn the keys over to a stooge, though the trumpster might say idiot. Either way Mr Putin is sleeping well.

also intolerable 

     California prison officials have agreed to pay for a sex change operation for a 57 year old killer with no hope for parole.

      Shiloh Heavenly Quine was convicted of first degree murder, kidnapping and robbery for ransom. He is serving a life sentence. It is thought this first such approval will allow other transgender inmates to apply to receive state funded sex reassignment surgery. It doesn't take long to calculate the cost. 

     If you want elective surgery which government agency can you to turn to get it paid for? Hmmm. Guess you could commit a serious crime?  

     Does anyone think longitudinally? 

     Government has better and more deserving ways to spend its money, don't you think so, or not? 

      See you down the trail.

IMPRESSED-DISAPPOINTED-DIVERTED AND TRICKY GOING

POPPING UP

   Having been so taken by the extraordinary sky scenes in the recent Bruce Taylor post, linked here, I was pleased by a couple of clouds that popped up behind these slopes in the Santa Lucia Mountains as viewed from our deck.

   Skies here are normally clear so as former mid-westerners we get excited when clouds appear. I hope you'll take the link above to see Bruce's beautiful shots that remind me of JMW Turner paintings. 

THE TROUBLE ABOUT CELEBS

    A life in the news business and one is rarely surprised by how people behave, but there are still disappointments.

    If Cosby did what he's accused of and there seems plenty of indication he did, it's despicable. And sad.

     Now they say Tom Selleck "stole" or used public water for his estate. Why? Our neighbors in Cambria pay water suppliers and none of them have the wallet of Selleck.  

     Not sure where the investigation involving Subway pitch- man Jared Fogel is going. Hope he's cleared of any wrong doing. What they're investigating is a sick and heinous problem and crime. Actually feeling sorry for Subway, though their ad agencies and marketing people get some quick work.

    And that's the point. We've become a celebrity and fame obsessed culture haven't we?  Think of how much time, space and ink these pieces have gotten while we ignore real news. How about this the troubling news we are into a new Cold War? We've managed to ignore a lot of other "issues," "threats," "problems" and the like so the old national security beat in the back of my head agitated up an admonition. I call your Selleck and raise you a Putin!

      

TRICKY ANGLING

    Can you spot the fishermen in this frame?

    They guide their kayaks into the kelp beds of the coast near Morro Rock.

   See you down the trail.

AVOIDING THE WAR PATH

CAUTION

     Being engaged in another intractable war is madness, thus the United States and our disparate political factions need to think deeply, expansively and move very slowly.

     The latest threat of course is the civil war in Syria. Hawkish voices, many of them from the American right, are foolishly looking to force the Obama administration into an action of some sort.  That is not a step we want to take.

John Kerry's attempt to counsel with Russia's Putin is the right action for now.  

     The Bush invasion of Iraq, and the Obama escalation of Afghanistan validate the lessons of history.  It does not go well for a western power to step into the insane slipstream of middle eastern ancient hatreds.  Iraq is worse off post American invasion.  The US will retreat from Afghanistan as the Russians did before us, confounded by the dark age reality of tribalism, war lords, and a nation that is stuck in a world of ignorance, superstition and a religion of death.

     I have never understood the penchant of politicians who want to rush to war.  Just look at our own history.  How many times have we leaped into the fire, based on emotion, hot air and rhetoric? 

     All of the options for Syria are bad.  Assad is probably worthy of a daily flogging for the rest of his miserable and evil life, but the post Assad Syria is absolutely problematic for the world.  The further disintegration of a civil society is an almost certain outcome.  Just look at Iraq post Saddam.

Any American move into that hellish stew will hurt and cost us in ways we can not afford.  My concern is that we are seeing the early signs of what could be a catastrophic regional war fare between Shias and Sunnis.  

     Thus far Israel has shown it can and will protect its interests.  In the meantime we should not be goaded or talked into an engagement in Syria. If indeed the regime has ordered the use of chemical weapons on civilians, the United Nations must respond.  We can not let American windbag politicians talk us into something we should not do.  The president can find more appropriate language than the discussion of "red lines" and the ankle biters in the House and Senate need to realize the world is more serious than all their blather and political gamesmanship.  

      There is suffering, ignorance, disease, and hurting in this world where we could or should be.  Syria seems bound for a war amongst themselves, and I can't see that this nation has a player in that game.  Post Assad Syria could be the next step to a Muslim war.  Let them fight it. In the meantime we can be part of a team to deal with humanitarian relief and aid.

GLIMPSES OF SPRING

   See you down the trail.