Accountability and Hope

 

     Nature, life's portal, like human hope, springs anew. Poetic that spring follows the season of dark. It has been a long season.

    The world reeling from pandemic, brutality instead of reason, and nature's recent hostility renders us weary, wounded and in need of lifted spirits. 

    We offer these:

•  frames of spring 2021, early as it is in California 
• and the word that is the elixir for all that plagues us, Perseverance, as in Percy.

    This elegant flight machine, a Great Blue Heron that graced our ridge top this week is a thing of beauty, grace and wonder. So is this...

NASA 

Perseverance on Mars 

      As bad as it can be on planet earth, the best of our huddled masses has put us in the heavens, again, and with selfies.

    Our technological offspring, a global darling, will rove and produce science exploration and contribute mightily to the intelligence of humankind. 

NASA Illustration

       Out west we can still see footprints of our pioneering spirt and long suffering endurance. Humankind is capable of the stars if we remember the foundational basics and lead with our intellect and act with character, listening to our hearts, where we know right from wrong.  

        We are sorry for the recent misery in the Texas Republic. They could have, should have, been prepared. Many places on this planet routinely handle winter's blast, but Texas thinks of itself as bigger, badder, and tougher. Texas is the home of the Lone Ranger. 

        A commission has been launched. Before it lifts a hand we know why the state was so hammered. Poor planning, no accounting for climate change, maximized profits, cheaper construction techniques, the "we've got ours, you get yours" attitude, a belligerent sense of energy independence and money, inequitably deployed along the spectrum.

        Ted Cruz, his other qualities not withstanding, is the poster boy for the attitude in possession of some Texans in authority. But there is also Willie Rios

Photo by St. John Barned-Smith  Houston Chronicle 

        The South Houston Councilman, who is a tradesman, led herculean efforts to get sewage treatment plants operating and water running. The councilman worked around the clock tending to the needs of his district.

Rios on the right with constituent   

Photo Yi-Chinn Lee Houston Chronicle

    We see the model of public service in Willie Rios and his kind, the ideal "politician," there to meet the needs of neighbors. Theirs is not to set blame or to steal away to the beach, but to fix, and serve. It is good to see acting on principle instead of political careerism. Elected office at it's nexus is about the constituent.

    Accountability matters. As one who called for a national inquiry as early as January 6, it is my sense it should be under the Department of Justice. A congressional inquiry could get at the truth, but history, and you and I are served if it is far from a political landscape. 

    Perhaps because I know and for decades covered co-Chairman Lee Hamilton, I have a bound volume of the 9/11 Commission and have pulled it from the shelf a surprising number of times over the years. A good commission report is necessary for understanding and it can be curative. We need that now. It too can be a tonic, a springtime for the soul of America.

       When the trees bloom on the California central coast, spring for the rest of America is not far off. The vaccine is being distributed, good and decent people are in control again, and investigative efforts are underway. 

    

    One more look at the Great Blue Heron. I was busy in my study when daughter Kristin called to alert us it was next door.

    Usually I see them only from a distance, unable to capture the texture of their feathers. In this case she or he was busy apparently stalking gophers. That too strikes me as justice at work.

    Where spring is always at the right time, it seems also Providential the most complicated space landing happens as we confront climate, disease, lies and division. It reminds of a human skill and also our destiny, to persevere.

    Stay safe and stay well.

    See you down the trail.

Moral Bankruptcy

 

        As certain as sky meets the sea and sea meets the land there are immutable principles and forces at work, laws of nature. 

    Human life is bound by canons, history measures with the cold calculus of principle, that too is immutable. Character is rendered, judgement revealed. Human history is made of these. It is the log of our evolution, and it is indelible. 

    The Republican party set the nadir of moral bankruptcy and cowardice. Deplorable and despicable were their actions and now their reputations. Mitch McConnell's wile, his post acquittal statement, is like the man, fraudulent. After his time on the national stage he fears the inevitable searing truth of the historian's ledger. He will not have it both ways. Four years he enabled a destructive invasion of the republic and has again allowed a pernicious evil to go unchecked. It will be his votes, his record of complicity that history will recall. Generations will revile Trump, his mob of insurrectionists, his seditious accomplices and his hypocrites like McConnell.

    I needed fresh air and a long view after the acquittal. Though the outcome was expected, I hoped late information, the McCarthy and Tuberville phone calls, proving presidential inaction and cooperative complicity with those in the Capitol and seeking to harm his vice president and others, would land a shred of decency in a few of the cowardly republicans. 

    

     The free ranging cattle have more moral conviction than 43 republican senators. I was struck by the irony of 10 grazing animals, as the vote for the good fell 10 short. 

      The republican party is at war with itself. At this juncture the spineless, deceptive, and crooked are beholden to the ignorant fans of authoritarianism. Nikki Haley's recent ploy signals there could be some life yet in those who want to run away from Trump and are willing to say it out loud, though late as it is.

        History will recall the warnings sounded by arguments in the first impeachment, that acquittal would only embolden the rogue president. Proven in short order. He began the incitement when he cultivated the militias, Q crazies, insurrectionist cells and the core racists. He started the movements violent turn when he began to undermine the credibility of the election early in the year. His claim the election would be fair only if he won should have been a warning enough. His relentless pursuit of overturning the election, lies, fraud, crazy theories, were all part of the incitement. 

        I'm sorry the Impeachment was not framed more widely to include all of that, and his lack of intervention but Republicans were there, they had to flee the threat of killing mobs who were in Washington only to "Stop the Steal." They know who was the architect. History will record their knowledge, their complicity and their cowardice. It is time to for both the House and Senate to begin actions to purge the anti American  pro authoritarian Republicans. They are the enemies of the people.

        

        There's a patch of woods I sometimes retreat to and on my last walk I spotted trees that I took pleasure in seeing as symbols of the character of the republican party.

the hawley

the cruz

the graham

    Our experiment in a democratic republic requires the give and take of checking and balancing views. The nation has been at its best when bipartisanship was in season. My previous post tracked the genesis and evolution of the death spiral that made Trump a republican inevitability. We can only hope that traditional republicans will regain control of the party. 

    Trump and his kind, and the poor suckers who believed him are still here. When the gutless, craven, poltroons did not drive a stake through his heart, they made it possible for a vile and evil force to continue to menace not only them, but the future of the nation.

        Over the last few months I've been a part of conversations, interviews and briefs with intelligence and national security people. Their view on this moral bankruptcy in a once great nation will be the subject of a future post. 

shout out to Lana

                                            

            We've reached valentine's days and we are still eating fresh tomatoes. This plate is the last of this year's crop. They were picked, when green, before she pulled the plants. They have continued to ripen. For a guy who grew up in the tomato growing calendar of Indiana, having our own fresh crop at this time is amazing!

     Stay well, stay safe.

     See you down the trail.   

SEEING IT & SUPERB!

Barrels with a view

Paso Robles West Side 

February Color

Political Scraps

    Regardless of the politics, you've got to feel sorry for Jeb Bush. Those who know say he's a lot smarter, classier and more capable than his brother, but he just never caught on in this year of political anger and bombast. 

     As the improbable Trump parade continues Ohio's Kasich remains the adult in the crowd.  Cruz is an extremist. If you call him a nut case I won't disagree. Rubio is the hope for many, especially the less right wing or those wearing evangelical blinders. The knock on Rubio is John Kennedy and Barack Obama- another young man from the Senate who could benefit from more vintage time.  Others see his youth as a plus.  Kasich has been on the Hill, knows the way around legislation and Washington including the military and has been a governor. He's got a more pedigreed resume.

     Sanders tenacity and the abiding loyalty of his supporters can't make up for lack of super delegates and numbers, but seems bound to keep the Democratic race interesting in the immediate future.

     Clinton has a generation gap issue and trouble with likability. Her negative numbers could be harmful in the general election.

     Barack Obama should put forth a nominee to fill the Scalia  vacancy and the Senate Judiciary Committee and full Senate should consider the nomination. That is the Constitutional way. The Thurmond Rule being sited now is complete garbage. Strom Thurmond, a bigot and racist, used the tactic against Lyndon Johnson when the fellow Democrat nominated Jewish Abe Fortas, already on the Supreme Court, to be Chief Justice. It was a political tactic and has no value. The Constitution speaks for itself-as the late Justice Scalia would say.

     Mitch McConnell should check into a cryogenic tube or should be volunteered to be the first man on mars!

    

FOR FOODIES ONLY

    Chef Jose' Dahan of the late but remarkable Cafe et Voila now does special dinners including this grand evening at Sinor-LaVallee Winery in Avila Beach. 

   The evening started with a sparkling brut rose' from Alsace. 

 The appetizer: Ratatouille, seafood bisque, duck pate' with cornichon and shrimp in mustard sauce.

  Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc

Salad: Baby wild arugula, orange, haricots verts, fennel and goat cheese in olive oil and citrus .

Entrees: Roasted rack of lamb with wild mushroom risotto and ratatouille Nicoise with garlic, herbs and Syrah reduction

  Sautéed sea bass with braised baby bok choy and fingerling persillees' topped with a creamy ginger drizzle. 

Desert trio: Citrus and Ginger creme brûlée, bread pudding with bourbon creme Anglaise, chocolate raspberry tart

  The Wines of the evening were all Jose's choice and were French-unusual in California Wine country-but we heard no complaints.

See you down the trail.

ALL THE MARBLES

   Most days I'd rather trust these guys than the bozos ruining the House of Representatives. While John Boehner will be remembered for his shortcomings as Speaker, he is parting with a dash of honesty. The Hill is full of "false prophets" and Ted Cruz is a "jack ass." 

   I expect Cruz to begin channeling tail gunner Joe McCarthy. For the history challenged, he was the drunk demagogue who fueled the "red scare" hunting for communists in Hollywood, the State Department and under the bed. He did a lot of damage until common sense, decency and journalism exposed him for the gas bag fraud that he was. Oddly he is still a darling of some right wing Evangelical Christians, so Cruz may indeed reincarnate intolerance, ignorance and ignominy. 

FLASHES OF KID HOOD

   While a lot of folks in Washington have lost theirs, Lana still has hers. She's beginning work on some painting ideas and rolled out her kid hood prized marbles.

AND THESE ARE HISTORIC

   These clay marbles belonged to her mother and are well over a hundred years old.

A SKY MARBLE

    An appreciated cloud cover and fog occluded our view of the eclipse, but the night before the moon and clouds provided a dance of their own.

    See you down the trail.