How deeply is he despised?

 left coast lamentations

   We had been a woman entrepreneur, an ad agency employee, a college professor, a jazz and big band trumpeter and a journalist.

     We are California voters. We were figuring the odds, like millions of US citizens are doing. What combination of ticket will carry the popular vote and perform well in those "key" precincts and counties that tab up the electoral college.

    Well read, well informed aside, there is still indecision about for whom to cast a primary vote. We handicapped each candidate's value and appeal.

    With tracking polls being what they are, we wondered if Bernie wins the most delegates, will the Democrat party coronate or karate chop him? Would Bernie's appeal bring those one time "abandoned, ignored, forgotten" Democrats who voted instead for Trump, to their senses?  Would Berniecrats back another Democrat?

     What is Super Tuesday likely to produce and portend?

     Oh, and the conversation also swung to visas and length of stay in EU nations, the price of housing and such in sane nations where the great ignoramus and his fascism are despised.

shoving mike in front of the bus

        I first knew Mike Pence when he was a radio talk show host and failed congressional candidate. The earlier Pence was a more genuine article. Once he took right wing and pro life money, he got squirrelly, but they bought his way onto more radio stations and after a few tries he finally got elected to congress.

     After a few terms he was marinated and lusted for power. His run for governor was part of a strategy to make a presidential run.

     By most accounts, he was a miserable governor and embarrassed the state and even the portion of the Indiana Republican party that continued to produce brain waves. (Remember they were the party that "primaried" a Lion of the Senate" Richard Lugar.)

      Those Republicans with the function of reason were thinking about throwing Pence over after his first term. But the great ignoramus called.

      The nation has seen the kind of VP he has been. It got worse for him when the stable genius grabbed him, like body armor, a human shield, and made him the point man. If anything goes wrong with the COVID-19 strategy, Mike takes the fall.

       After 3 years of being a yes man, Pence is now anointed as the scape goat. Pence gave Trump what he demands, loyalty. Trump pays him back, true to form while he lies to us about the public health threat and while making it all about himself, just "another attempt to remove him" from office.

       I wonder if Mike despises the idiot monarch too?

reaching for a metaphor

     A child on a felled ancient tree, and the mind runs, to ideas like legacy, consequence, and meaning. 

     The climate, the gig economy, the remnant hatreds of race, identity, the prospect of well being, the changing nature of work, defending privacy, even defining privacy are among the under currents of demographically relevant issues in this 2020 election. 

     As much as any of those may touch us, their latent significance will bloom in more profound ways, after most of us have left the arena.

     All I can mutter is our political system needs a generational transfusion, and a new field of developing and equipping candidates, but most vitally a new way of thinking about the ideas and the ideals that underpin our way of doing politics and government. The first thing that should go, is money. There are more important factors that need to be the influencers and drivers. Maybe we could start with life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. 

a trip up the coast

 Wilderness and nature are always a good antidote.

 The Big Sur wilderness is like the mothers milk of creative thought and respite.

a corruption of spirit

   McClatchy journalists have led the reporting on a story that symbolizes how broken and morally corrupt a government that operates amidst greed, big money and perverted ideology can be. That government is the US and the case in point is K2.

    K2 is the Karshi-Khanabad base in Uzbekistan where US forces were housed, even though it was known the abandoned base was contaminated with cyanide, blister and nerve agents.

    7 thousand US forces were assigned duty at K2 between 2001-2005. McClatchy has verified that chemical, nuclear, and biological officers tested the facility three times in 2002 alone. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld knew he was assigning troops to a dangerous posting.

    Today hundreds of those veterans have been diagnosed with cancer and chronic illnesses. Now they struggle with the Veterans Administration to even recognize their illnesses are connected with their tours of duty at the dangerous base. 

     Ponds of water at K2 were so contaminated they were called "Skittles" because they glowed with bright colors, like the candy. 

     The troops were abused by command decisions that further endangered their lives, even as they were already in a combat position. When a nation permits decisions like Rumsfeld's and the approval he had from Vice President Dick Cheney, it is morally corrupt. What Rumsfeld and Cheney did and approved is criminal. It goes on the list of other criminal and corrupt actions that duo perpetrated.
     It is the moral failure of all of us to permit these veterans, and others who have been injured or become ill while in service to us, to be denied anything but the best care and attention.
     There is much to despise about those things we permit or have done to undermine the principles and ideals that coalesced in the experiment of some 244 years ago.
     This election cycle is an opportunity for a desperately needed curative. It begins with thinking and is founded on honesty. 
      

    See you down the trail.

     

A Statesman

 Richard Lugar and Birch Bayh

1980 AP photo

Two legendary US Senators

     Richard Lugar was a great man. There is a reason he served one of the longest terms ever in the US Senate; he was a thoughtful, analytical intellect, he was a devoted public servant with a drive to make things better, he stood his ground, he chided and pushed even Presidents, and he worked as hard as anyone to make this world safe from nuclear weapons.
   Lugar's passing at 87 is reason for you to spend a few minutes reading some of the cascade of coverage about this remarkable man from Indiana. 

       Tom and Senator Lugar at Richard Lugar Fitness Fest and Run

Lugar was an early advocate of fitness and was a runner.

      I was fortunate to meet and begin covering his political and public service career in 1969. He was the young mayor of Indianapolis and I was a reporter assigned to cover city government.
     At one of our first meetings, Mayor Lugar, who was organizing an international conference of cities, got down on his hands and knees and worked through an overflowing book case, looking for a manuscript by a scholar. He was an habitual reader, voracious consumer of information which he worked to integrate into his public service.

an historic save

      Lugar's work on Nuclear Disarmament and Agricultural reform were his long suits in the Senate where he was respected by both sides of the aisle. 
      Lugar was at the center of one of the most critical and dangerous tipping points in history.
      The Soviet Union had collapsed and Generals from the Red Army showed up in Washington wanting to talk about life and death matters.  
     Secretary of State Baker and the HW Bush White House were being careful, but to a fault and spurned the contact.
     Lugar took the meeting and along with Democrat Sam Nunn heard this message-The Soviet power structure is gone, so is the command of the Soviet Army and Navy and that means we no longer have control over nuclear war heads that have US addresses on them. The same is true for chemical and biological weapons. 
        Diverse locales, Georgia, Ukraine, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia and other nations that had been under the Soviet boot heel, had weapons, bases, ports and stock piles in their now independent nation. Who controlled them? That was the million dollar question.
      Lugar and Nunn were quick. Lugar, a former naval intelligence officer and Chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee knew rogue players and terrorists soon would be bidding for control of the old Soviet nukes and chemical weapons and material.
     With in hours he and Nunn had worked legislative handles and had millions of dollars to essentially save the world. Soon they were flying off to the old Soviet empire and "buying" war heads, and paying military officers to stay in place and guard the nukes and subs, paying to house Soviet troops who were ready to desert since the empire was no longer in place and could not or would not pay the troops. The troops had families at home and they needed money. Command control was breaking down.
     What Lugar and Nunn saw would raise the hairs on the back of your neck. They returned to the states and crafted what was known as the Nunn-Lugar act. The US would buy weapons and take them down. It eventually became known as the Cooperative Threat Reduction plan. The two of them built a legislative consensus and kept the program funded. After Nunn retired, the work was Lugar's to do.
     This period of Lugar's work was one of the great diplomatic plays of all time. It is in the echelon of the Marshall Plan.  
    As a documentary maker I developed a project to tell the story. It didn't get made. As we were fundraising 9/11 happened. The focus shifted.

Senator Lugar and Lewis Stiner at the ceremony of Stiner's retirement

    Lugar was a progressive and creative mayor who was the godfather of revitalization of rustbelt cities. The halo around Indianapolis as one of America's great cities, was drafted and   the work began under Lugar, with the assistance of his dynamic staff, especially the visionary Jim Morris. The new Indianapolis that followed became guide light for other cities reinvention. 

     Morris was one of the brilliant young thinkers Lugar brought to public service and there were many.

     I met a young Mitch Daniels as he worked in that era and with Lugar's first political chief, Keith Bulen. Daniels became his Senate chief of staff for several years and later worked in the Reagan and W Bush administrations as well as being twice elected Indiana Governor. He is now President of Purdue University.

    The coverage of his passing reprises the extraordinary record of his 36 years in the Senate. Consider the sweep of history from 1977 to 2013 and ponder that Lugar was often a pivotal player and was revered and respected by politicians from every point on the spectrum.

     Praise came from former Presidents, current candidates, Democrats, Republicans and foreign leaders. They respected his depth and they liked the man. 

     When my fraternity brother and long time friend retired from Naval Intelligence, Lugar was there. He respected Lew's service. Lugar had been a legendary intelligence briefer for Admiral Raleigh Burke. He said that had been a shaping experience.

     A lot of people think Lugar would have been a good President. He gave it a run in 1996. One of his chief operators was Mark Lubbers, another of the brilliant people attracted to service by Lugar. 

     His campaign was themed on fiscal sanity and nuclear security. He was a brainy and non flashy candidate but what was the death knell for his campaign was the day it launched, April 19, 1995, the day of the bombing of the Federal building in Oklahoma City. Millions of prospective voters didn't get to see or hear what would have been his moment in the spotlight.

      Amongst those who knew, worked with or covered Lugar there was always discussion about what might have been, how might the world have been different.
      Lubbers has advised Governors and lawmakers and has leveraged his own creative approach to policy issues, mentored by the Senator. Lubber's wife Teresa has spent her life as a multi term State Senator and Commissioner of Education. Her path to public service was inspired by Lugar who she interviewed as a high school journalist. He had a twinkle and spark and a way of motivating.
       There is a cadre of politicians and public servants who were inspired by the former school board officer, innovative mayor and towering 6 term US Senator.

      

      I've been ruminating on lots of Lugar reflections. 
      One that makes me laugh is when my first historical mystery-thriller novel was published. I was on Sanibel Island vacationing and doing a series of book signings. Lugar's staff reached me to say the Senator was also on the Island, one of his favorite break spots and that I should take a book around to him.

      When I arrived I was directed to a location near the pool and beach under an umbrella. There was the senator in a polo style shirt, Bermuda shorts, with dark, to the knee socks and I think wing tip shoes. They may have been loafers.

      I've written before about some of the greatest evenings.

When I was president of the Indianapolis Press Club we hosted dinner and conversations with Senator Lugar and Representative Lee Hamilton. Those men were among the most knowledgeable on national security, intelligence and foreign relations. They held ranking positions in the Senate and House. Sitting there and listening to their state of the art information and analysis, and seeing the respect they had for each and the marvelous byplay was a good as it gets.

     And so was Lugar. I didn't agree with all of his votes, but I respected him and the intelligence he put into his public service. He may have read more than anyone I know. He certainly did more to keep the world safe than probably anyone else.  
    If you don't know much about this man, read a few articles. He deserves the attention due a genuine and historic "Statesman." There are precious few.

       See you down the trail.

REPUBLICANS SHOULD HEAR THIS & THE KING IS HERE

AN EXTRAORDINARY FAREWELL

    Words, important for all Americans to hear, have been inscribed now into the historic record of the US Senate, but first they should be heeded. What Senator Richard Lugar said in his farewell to the Senate is counsel and wisdom to this generation and to the future.
     Lugar is the most senior Republican in the senate and has served there 30 years.  He is widely considered to be one of the most intelligent Senators in history. 

Link here to see Lugar's farewell on the Senate floor.

     Lugar's 15 minute farewell could well save this nation years of acrimony and heartbreak. 

     He cautioned his own party.

     "...Republicans must be willing to suspend reflexive opposition that serves no purpose but to limit their own role in strategic questions and render cooperation impossible." 

      Lugar is one of the nation's leading thinkers on foreign policy. He chaired the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and has advised Presidents.

    "All parties should recognize the need for unity in the coming year when events in Iran, Syria, Afghanistan, North Korea and other locations may test American national security in extreme ways."

     Americans are fortunate Lugar will continue to work on nuclear non proliferation and the cooperative threat reduction program that he and former Senator Sam Nunn started after the fall of the Soviet Union. They deserve the Nobel Peace Prize.  Their work to stabilize and control nuclear and chemical/biological weapons is one of the great chapters in world history.
     I wrote earlier about Lugar's impact and my history of covering him. You can link to that post here.
     If you have any interest in the state of American politics, I urge you to see the C-SPAN file on his farewell.

THE KING TIDE

 It's called the King Tide and indeed it is.  

   It is the rare cosmological and natural phenomena where the tide is so high, the beach disappears.

   Here are a few frames of the same beach, before the King Tide.

   See the difference in boulder before and after- 

       See you down the trail.