IS THIS TRUMP A TRICK

REMIND YOU OF SOMEONE?

The Donald

Nature's perverse humor

      I keep searching the side of the political coverage scenes, looking for a flash of Joel or Ethan Coen or George Clooney. Seeing them smirking around the edges of the political swamp would bring relief, this is all a joke.

    Warning bells are ringing. No less a traditionalist than conservative and Republican David Brooks laments and pleads for sanity arguing that neither Trump nor Cruz can be elected, he hopes.  Ditto for Sanders. They are not stable he argues so America will not take them on as long term companions. But the venerable Mr. Brooks is not convinced so he says he will spend the next few months in denial. He's not alone in the GOP, the Gagging Old Party.

    It's now an old joke-TV News has become all Trump all the time. There's far too much truth in that. It's the funny pages moved to the front page. The freak show moved to the big top. Donald is so colorful the modern journos can't help themselves.

    Ah, but they can.

Rachel pounds Flint 

    As so much of the media universe was making silly over the entirely over rated politically active Iowans and Donald Vs. Megyn, or basking in the annual Super Hype, Rachel Maddow did something different-real journalism. Like her or not, approve or disapprove of her tilt, she had the presence of mind and conscience to focus a big media light on an  unbelievable American disaster. 

    The story of lead contamination of 100 thousand Americans, including 9,000 children is symbolic of how broken, morally bankrupt and politically corrupt this nation can be. The story of Flint is something you'd expect in Russia or North Korea.

    Her town hall meeting was a tangible and credible effort at understanding yes, but also a beginning pursuit of doing something about it. Honestly, Flint is a helluva lot more important than the Iowa Caucus, New Hampshire Primary and the clown car media carnival they have fostered. And more honesty-crumbling infrastructure is not the exclusive problem of Flint.  How wide spread might it be? If you really want to know, pull up a map and begin counting every major city in America. When you've counted them all you'll have your answer.

KERMIT WAS RIGHT

   The modicum of good news in this post is the picture above. Moisture and green, in California. It hasn't been easy.

    We are sorry El Nino has produced serious problems elsewhere, but here on the California coast and into the high Sierra we are getting relief from four years of drought. Nothing is back to normal yet, but it is getting better. Lakes are no longer bone dry and the mountain snow pack is healthy. We have several more weeks in this rainy season and we are grateful for the additional moisture on the way.

       By the time the political circus comes to town out here our lovely green may have begun to fade into our golden season. The June primary here will be the end of the preliminaries and the eve of the national conventions. In the last few years the conventions have been nothing more than television programs, a sort of perverted telethon. There has been nothing to decide, so the delegates gather to party and offer up platitudes. This year could be a bit different.  We'll see. And how I hope I see the Coen's.

     See you down the trail.

AN IGNORED WARNING

LIFE IN FAST FORWARD

PHOTO FROM JIMMY CARTER LIBRARY

    The "hot line" direct communication link between Moscow and Washington went into service on this day in 1963.  It took 12 hours to decode, translate and respond to Nikita Kruschev's message months earlier during the Cuban Missile Crisis.

    By the time the hot line was on Jimmy Carter's desk, the technology had evolved. The dinosaur phone in the picture, once was the picture of modernity.

     49 years after the groundbreaking channel of instant communication we have come to this:

YouTube's Election hub, a child of the internet, which has revolutionized communication. Social media fueled the "Arab-Spring" and now Phillip DeFranco, the lad on the left who began his program in his basement, has more viewers than Anderson Cooper, Rachel Maddow and even Jon Stewart's daily show.

     DeFranco is one of the multiple offerings on YouTube's election site which puts the director's call of what to air into your hands, truly at your finger tips and on the screen of your choice.

SO IN SUCH A WELL WIRED WORLD
A WORRIED WHY?

     The story of shrinking arctic sea ice, the largest melt since tracking data began, was reported two days ago and barely drew a notice. Arctic sea ice is disappearing more quickly than any time we know of and more rapidly than predicted.

Graph courtesy of Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency and THE WASHINGTON POST

     The increasingly warm summer trends indicate earth's warming and the probability the sea ice will disappear in a future summer.  Warmer Arctic waters can cause Greenland's ice sheet to melt and that can lead to many problems. The shrinking of the Arctic Sea Ice and the diminishing of Greenland's Ice sheet will likely lead to more extreme summers and winters everywhere.

    Man made?  Nature's cycle?  A combination?  Don't you think it's worth exploring?  Still you had to search to see or hear anything.

    About the time the hotline was established a network of radio and television stations, produced a docudrama. Set in the future it was the story of how a news organization covered an environmental and ecological disaster that threatened all human life.  In one chilling passage the anchor does a voice-over of historic clips, listing a litany of warning signs of impending doom, sighting years, and failed international conferences.  Warning after warning went ignored while the people occupied themselves with buying and wanting more.  Until it was too late to hide from the impending end.

     How are we using or listening to our great communication tools? Is mother earth calling our hotline?

DAY FILE

A CORNER OF THE STUDIO

   I was looking around Lana's studio when I became intrigued by the corner near the window.  It's got "personality."

   I'm fascinated by the, texture, lines, divisions and proportionality of the frame below.

See you down the trail.