Into Madness and Out

a face in the wood

Lime Kiln Canyon, California

mind control

    Has your life begun to resemble some distant remembrance of an old sci-fi plot? 

     A pandemic, world wide worry, and a lunatic in the White House? 

      Dear ones, we are going deep into the forest and there are many questions about this journey.

    Four decades of reporting, producing and documentary making has toughened my skin and tested my soul, but when I saw a recent set of photos of empty streets, arenas, shelves, religious shrines and places on this globe where people were not, it gave me a jolt. 

    A virus is taking control of how we live. It is a terrorist, a war fighter invasion and it challenges our thin wall of civility. 

    We all have a stake in this, as all of us are vulnerable. Regardless of ethnicity, race, gender, identity, nation, age, or whatever, we are the same. Something new, unknown, and unseen has, in days, changed how we live and has rewritten our fears.

the mad king

   As we face an emergency on a potential level unseen in over a hundred years, the Trump administration has blown it. That is not surprising, but it is unforgivable! 

   No testing kits. No advance prep. No cohesive strategy. Trump is the president who fired the national security council expert on pandemics. He is the man who has downplayed the epidemic. He is the man who stood in front of doctors and raved about "how people were so surprised at how much he knew" about medicine.

    Donald Trump is delusional, inept and a clear and present danger to us all.

    His vanity, and his desire for re-election has made him even more dangerous. He's interested only in the stock market, reasoning that is his ticket to re-election. God help us! 

    He tells us it will just "go away," after first comparing it to just another attempt to get rid of him. He lies about statistics. If only some rational cabinet members would invoke the 25th Amendment, Section 4 and put the fool in a straight jacket and send him to Walter Reed and a padded cell. The man is ill. His brain is a congress of demons of greed, ego, deceit and fantasy. 

  

our common good

     If ever in our lifetime, this is something that  profoundly demonstrates we are all brothers and sisters, children under the same sky, residents of the same globe, and vulnerable to something that as yet we have little or no control of. 

     Blame and recrimination are unavoidable and necessary, but our purpose now should be to follow the advice of the medical experts and do what we can to lower and attempt to control the spread, to act with intelligence and civility. 

      We know not to buckle to terrorists because that gives them a victory, but this terrorist is a virus and we must employe intelligence and change things about our personal contact. There will be disruptions, but with time and proper procedures we will get through it. Already the number of cases in China are beginning to decline.

      In the meantime we are best advised to take our information from good sources, recognized medical sources, the World Health Organization, the CDC, state and county Health Departments. Be careful with the information that comes from social media and friends.

      While this medical emergency plays out we must remember the lowest humans among us will try to take advantage. There will be hustlers, cheats, price gougers, political manipulators, healers and the like. Don't be fooled. 

 the bright side

      My mother used to say, in all things, look on the bright side. She could say that and believe it, even after burying 3 of her four children. 

      So let's watch to see how all the children of this planet respond, and look for those movements, actions, events and developments which demonstrate once again, our unique human quality at over coming and surviving.

      Since we've traveled so deeply into the dark woods and  pondered such a heavy load, how about a celebration of life and vitality. Let's wander on and find an antidote.....

green renewal

    Take good care of yourself and loved ones.

      See you down the trail. 

Legitimacy?

    The scope of the American divide was clarified in California when Governor Jerry Brown defied the "alternative fact" reality of the Trump regime. It also cast new light on the questionable legitimacy of the new presidency.

    Noting California is the sixth most powerful economy in the world he said this state "is not turning back now, not ever."   He called for courage and persistence as California continues to work on climate change, health care and assistance to emigres.

    "We have heard the blatant attacks on science. Familiar signposts of our democracy-truth, civility, working together-have been obscured or swept aside," the Governor said.
     He quoted the Woody Guthrie anthem, This Land is Your Land including an oft deleted verse,
       "Nobody living can ever stop me,
        As I go walking the freedom highway;
        Nobody living can ever make me turn back
        This land was made for you and me."

alternative legitimacy 

       A fact Kellyanne Conway or her boss can not deny is the minority status of the regime. Yes he was elected by the electoral college as is legal, but it is also true he was clobbered in the popular vote and it is true he was rejected by establishment Republicans. But the real factor as to his legitimacy or lack of it, is his disconnect between facts and the lies he spews. As he has done historically he denies reality. Many, if not all, of his followers believe him. They live in a fantasy land, constructed by deceit and ignorance.

        Most of his followers think unemployment rose under the Obama White House. It did not. There has been record job growth. He paints the bleak picture of America gripped by crime and carnage. Crime rates have dropped dramatically, despite the tragic mass shootings empowered by the NRA and its belligerent disregard of America. The economy is not in ruin, it has been on a record setting period of growth, following the near depression. There are more disconnects. In fact the lies are well reported but his supporters are disconnected from truth, they believe their liar in chief.

        Will those who supported him come back to reality? The man now refuses to release his tax returns though he promised to. He is moderating his hardline on deporting illegals. He railed at Goldman Sachs and used Hillary Clinton's connection to the firm as proof of her corruption. He has now designated 5 Goldman Sachs alumni as key members of his team.

        His team includes predatory lenders, crooks who made the life of his "ignored" supporters a hell.  There is the ever charming Conway who claims there are "alternative facts." Here's one, she was reportedly in a fist fight at one of the inaugural balls. How's that for class?  It appears his press spokesman Sean Spicer has saved his job, for the time being. After the weekend tantrum his first regular briefing was more civil and traditional though he too had trouble with facts. He refused too acknowledge that unemployment, as reported by his federal regime, is at a low of 4.7. Spicer said Trump doesn't look at statistics. 

      Perhaps the most festering problem is his bosses continued conflict of interest. What is at the core? There are credible sources who suggest that Trump is mentally ill, in the grips of a narcissism so powerful that he really doesn't know the truth or in his predatory mind doesn't think it applies to him. As he has said a few times he is next to God in ability. The ego maniac in chief may well be so far out of touch he is in fact a danger and at least illegitimate.  How many times can you lie at the rate he does and not be too sick to hold office?  

      The lies and disconnects are warning signs. Yet we live in the "post-truth" world where your opinion matters as much as the truth or facts. I used to think the dire pronouncements about what catastrophe he could bring were over started. Not now, now that so many devotees of the vulgarian refuse to believe the truth. He's perfect for the so called freedom caucus who want to destroy the government. He and they are a disease in the American body.

fresh and healthy

    

   

        Aside from the obvious success of California's economy and a Governor, respected by Republicans and beloved by Democrats the other good news is the ending of the 5 year drought.

     Growing up in Indiana I was used to hard rains, something I had not seen here on the California central coast until this year.

   In five days we had 6 inches of rain in our Phillippi gauge on the ridge. Our total for the year is almost 27 inches. In some places there is evidence of the saturation.

     As we move forward in these uncertain times I can't help but wish a man with the judgement, balance, vision, experience, governing skill, bi-partisan support and character of Jerry Brown was leading this nation. For those of you majority of Americans who worry about the miscreant freak who sits in the oval office, know this western Republic will have your back.

    See you down the trail.