DELUSION IN AMERICA

 

        The scenes are hauntingly reminiscent, shutter flashes of a pre-millennium sci-fi or political thriller, too absurd to believe. But here we are, witnesses to a dystopian undoing of our own world view and all that we have believed about democracy and the American way.

     Truth is set aside. Delusion becomes contagion. They would rather die than take a vaccine. They've become a Reich, wrecking a Republic. A tidal rise of insanity, a time of vultures.

        The newest revelations of "madness-Trump" do more than confirm, they scare the hell out of us. 

        Joint Chiefs, the Speaker of the House, national security executives, former leaders all in furtive calls and liaisons desperately trying to avoid a nuclear launch, a rogue war, and the use of federal troops on American citizens. Never before has an American president talked of staging a coup!

        Even with all of that, the Republican party is interested only in restricting who can vote, and changing laws to give them control over the count.

        They seek to do what the 1/6 insurrection could not,  divert the course, change the outcome, of public elections.

        It is time to ignore Trump. The Cleveland Plain Dealer has begun to ignore politician's false statements and stunts. All media should do likewise.    

        I am a first amendment absolutist and as reporter was equally absolute about the public's right to know. I oppose any form of censorship, or restriction of media access. Media has no obligation to quote Trump or even give attention to his absurd lies about the election. There is no news in his mental illness.

         Printing or broadcasting his lies does no one but Trump any good. Giving him time and attention is a destructive drumbeat that is a call to damage or destroy the nation.

        History speaks to us. Even the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs has joined historians and those who see in Trump and Republican leadership similarities with the Nazi fascists of pre World War II. It's chilling to consider how the German nation was propagandized by lies into following a liar and madman. Donald Trump is observably delusional. Those who follow him and who do his bidding are a public insanity that should frighten us to our bones.

        Despite the monuments that would memorialize democracy, its foundation is not bed rock granite. Democracy is no stronger than its participants are wise. 

        Stupidity, that is a lack of knowledge, ignorance of history and fact has been rampant. Now, zombie like, mass public insanity rises from the septic mass who elect Q dupes, those who refuse to see the domestic terrorism of Trump, or who cynically swindle public trust and trample the truth as does Mcarthy, McConnell and thousands of Republican office holders. "Good Republicans" are being strangled by evil. 

            We are deep into it now. I don't know that historians can find a time so replete with mass lunacy and political imbecility. 

       

        A war has begun. The Republican party is wholly unfit, anti American and seeks to destroy democracy. They are in league with domestic terrorists.

        Democrats would do us all a favor if they went on the offensive. So too should people of conscience. 

        "Silence in the face of evil is itself evil. God will not hold us guiltless. Not to speak is to speak. Not to act is to act."

                                  Dietrich Bonhoeffer

        Bonhoeffer was a German theologian and pastor who was executed for his role in attempts to assassinate Adolph Hitler. 

        He had said if he sat next to a madman as he drove a car into a group of innocent bystanders he could not, even as a man of faith, simply wait for the catastrophe. He said he must try to wrestle the steering wheel out of the hands of the driver.

        Not to act, is to act.

        See you down the trail.

        

MADNESS LURKS-IN THREE ACTS-CHIM, CHIM, CHER-EE!

Some times you see things that stop you in mid step.

Not sure I can explain why about this, but such is our world today-inexplicable.

a relationship

in three phases

     While staring at the Pacific recently, players walked on to my stage and provided a short drama. What do you think is going on?  Suggest dialogue if you wish.

    

dedicated to-

(the party of your choice)

   Frequent readers have seen my reference to the wild turkeys that inhabit our ridge. The other day they seemed to strike a political pose. Again, supply your own captions.

tumbling for the russians

    The new acting DNI (Director of National Intelligence) has never collected, gathered, or analyzed intelligence. He is a Trump ass kisser. As this fascist regime continues to plunder 244 years of history, tradition, protocol and law, loyalty to the illegitimate president is all that matters. Tell the truth, especially when it veers from Trumps delusional thoughts, and you are out. 

     This White House is increasingly under the control of Putin. It is undeniable they did what they could to rig the 2016 and are busy working on this year, but the mad president and his sycophant Moscow Mitch are doing what they can to bury the truth. 

     Is it time for a coup by Generals and Intelligence chiefs?

the democrats in pursuit of....

just what exactly?

   I grew up a political junkie. My parents had worked in government and been involved in political campaigns, so it's probably in the DNA.  But I also enjoy it all. Once I thought politics was our undeclared national sport. Though it has gotten weird, of late.

    I covered several Presidential campaigns and many national political conventions. By the time I came off the campaign trail, the conventions had become pre ordained coronations and then devolved even further into simply staged political shows. Well, that could change.

    As a kid I watched in rapt attention as delegates gathered with uncertainties about who would be seated, what planks of a platform would be adopted and what candidate would emerge and who he, in those days it was only a he,  would choose as a running mate. It was great unscripted-true reality television.

    I covered the change in the process, beginning when Gary Hart and George McGovern engineered a revolution in the Democrat party nominating process, taking the power away from party pros, bosses and the smoke filled room and giving it to delegates via a process of primaries and caucuses. The Republicans adopted their own form of delegate voting.

     Well, kids, it is possible the Democrat Party will have an  unresolved gang fight when they gather in Milwaukee. It's the Super Delegates-the big foots of the party-who could bring the hammer down on or lift up one of those who are presently dicing up each other in the series of faux debates.

     A couple of quick thoughts about the debates. Most of them are horrid, not truly debates, engineered to be television spectacles, and frequently presided over by "moderators" who would be more at home on the world wrestling stage.  

     And shame on the Democrat candidates for taking the low road and emulating the rat bastard winner of the sordid show from the Republican 2016 campaign. 
    The D's are so eager to gain advantage, a point or a fundraising opportunity, they think nothing of making mince meat out of those with whom they share the stage, one of whom is likely to survive to be the standard bearer with the mission of stopping the rise of Trump fascism and halting the ascent of a dictator. 

     advice to candidates

    Boys and girls, point your verbal weapons at the liar in chief and tell us precisely how you will make things better, and leave the bludgeon work to the vile narcissist who will likely attack you for being the original snake in the garden, presuming he knows that story. 
     Trust us, we can decide for ourselves about each of you. You need not destructure your party kindred. It is unseemly. You look petty. You loose your cool. It is not visionary. And you are feeding the evil orange king with material to play back. Focus on the mad would be dictator and his hellish fog full of felons. 

help wanted-a real national chair

      I can't help but wonder how things would be different if the Democratic National Chair was good at his or her job. I  reflect on Chairs who seemed to have control and influence, like Frank McKinney or Paul Butler from Indiana, or Scoop Jackson from Washington, or Larry O'Brien from Mass., who did two terms and was such an operator Dick Nixon's team was undone when they tried to steal information from his office. Remember Watergate? Probably the strongest that I had a chance to watch was Bob Strauss from Texas. If Strauss were the chair he would have all of the Democrat would be presidents on the carpet and maybe even cleaning the toilets, for behaving as they are.

      As Judy Woodruff of PBS said, the possibility of an undecided race going into the convention is the sort of thing journalists dream of. True, that. And then a political operator chimed in, it's the sort of thing a campaign operator dreads. True, that too! Stay tuned.

       I'm only sorry that someone, not unlike one of the "old pros" from the old days, is not the chair. 

      These are strange times, like pages from a dystopian graphic novel. It's as though Oliver Stone has assumed divine powers. It's hard to believe.
       
      I repeat, is it time for a coup by Generals and Intelligence chiefs?

another reason to 
look up

   Often during our trip to Scotland and Ireland someone would watch as I was shooting and ask, what I was looking at. When I told them I was fascinated by the chimneys no one really knew how to respond. Sometimes it was a nod of the head, or a repeat of what I had just said "Chimneys," and frequently a version of "oh,..."

     In my California, we don't see such a scale of chimney.

    And documenting these Scottish and Irish versions I couldn't help but think of the sweeps of London singing

      "Up where the smoke is
        All billered and curled
        'Tween pavement and stars
        is the  chimney sweep world."

     Chim, chim, chimney, chim cher-ee!

    See you down the trail.

WHAT DO YOU SAY?

it's complicated

   The rigging on the tall masts anchored in Morro Bay symbolically captures the mood of complexity in the US these days-lots of angles.

     And so does a scene from Hamlet, especially the lines

      "Let me see. (takes the skull) Alas, poor Yorick! I knew him, Horatio, a fellow of infinite jest, of most excellent fancy. He hath borne me on his back a thousand times, and now, how abhorred in my imagination it is! 

      An explanation in a moment but there is a fascinating detail about the image above. The actor is David Tennant from the 2008 Royal Shakespeare Company Production and the skull is no mere stage prop, it is the skull of Pianist Andre Tchaikowsky. Tchaikowsky's skull was used by Tennant at the Courtyard theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon. When the production moved to London's West End, the skull was replaced by a prop as the company thought news of Tchaikowsky's skull distracted the audience.

   The painting above by Philip Calderon is from 1868 and depicts the young Lord Hamlet riding his beloved jester Yorick one of those thousand times. 

    Now here's the link. Charlie Rose, Matt Lauer, and Kevin Spacey- "...and now, how abhorred in my imagination..."

Hamlet and Horatio in the Graveyard
by Eugene Ferdinand Victor Delacroix

      I suspect our revulsion at the revelations about these media stars abusing women and misusing their influence is because we had admired their talent. That is for Rose and Spacey, in my opinion.

what do you say to your kids, matt lauer?

     It was reported the first thing Lauer did after being fired was drive to the private school to tell his teen son. How do you explain your perverted behavior to your offspring? What could he have said to offset the news of his disgusting behavior?

     I'd like to hear Lauer square his treatment of women colleagues with the fact he has a daughter. Someone should ask him what he would think or do if someone did to his daughter what he did to someone else's daughter?

     I was never a fan of Lauer. I was surprised he got the job after Bryant Gumble departed the Today Show. On his best day he was only a middling talent. There are many more effective communicators, hosts and news anchors working on local television stations. Even in the NBC stable there were more talented people.

     what do you say to all your high falutin' friends charlie rose?

    What a painful series of calls, visits and conversations for Charlie Rose. As a journalist and interviewer he had the respect of the worlds best, brightest, most powerful, creative, beautiful and important. People seemed in awe of finally being a guest on his long running interview program. It must be a huge fall. I watched Rose for as long as he did his PBS program and over the years learned and gained insights. Rose's behavior surprises and disappoints as much any on the list of fallen.

     It seems no matter the level of their wealth, a wealth that can allow them all to live more comfortably than a majority of people, they cannot escape the ignominy their vile behavior earned them. 

    It proves again, you can't always trust what you see-especially in a celebrity conscious media.

    revolution?

     Revolution is costly. I hope we are in the early days of a new era in interpersonal relationships in the work place. Perhaps a greater awareness of past abuses will guide us to more appropriate behavior and fairness, but I also hope that it will extend to race, ethnicity, gender identification and age as well as sexual behavior. Equal=Equal, period!

the pence coup?

     Atlantic's new opus on vice-president Pence contains revelations he and other republicans discussed a coup to depose trump after the Access Hollywood tapes were released. The piece documents the Pence "nod and wink" approach to supporting trump, as though saying-don't worry, I've got this covered.  I wonder how long before trump starts blasting his loyal servant?

      Like all those ropes and lines. Angles. Power. It's complicated.

     See you down the trail.