Making Love and Making War & Goodbye Donald?

    The dramas of humankind, in high season these days, are always put into perspective when juxtaposed to the enduring beauty and power of the nature around us.

   Friend and former colleague John Stanley captured the scene of the coast and evidence of the Sierra snow cover on his recent visit.

   Seeing these help us shove aside the carnival in Washington and remind us life is a longer stride than temporary folly. We turn to that folly in a moment but first-

making love

the season has come

   Most the young elephant seals have arrived...mothers are ending the six weeks of feeding and that means mating season is underway

   above, one of the reigning bulls, snoozes while surrounded by some of his harem that he serially mounts and mates until nature's course is set

   here a young pup is about to become a weaner--mother is about to shut off the food supply so she is "eligible" for becoming pregnant again...the little one hopefully gained enough milk-like a mayonnaise in consistency-in six weeks of feeding to survive its next challenges.  first they must learn to swim and after a while follow nature's gps, in their DNA, to a hunting ground up north. males go up to Alaska, females go up to northern Canada. Once mother cuts off the food she has nothing to do with the weaner. they are on their own, guided only by forces of nature to learn and live.

is the trumpster bound for the dumpster?

   Are we seeing the beginning of the end of the improbable Trump Presidency?
    Crazy for asking you might think? Well, serious people with long runs in Washington have begun to look at the Russian connection business with a framing perspective of Watergate. They began to ask that famous question of Watergate "what did the President know and when did he know it?" 
    Members of the government began to use the words "treason." Congress has opened investigations, even the Senate's majority leader McConnell shows evidence his testicles have finally dropped. 
     There have been leaks from the White House, from the intelligence community, from the Republican party. There is division among White House staffers. Cabinet members are saying one thing and the trumpster is saying something else.
     Old hands around Washington say this administration has been a train wreck and it hasn't even been a month.
     What has happened? Precisely what intelligent people warned - A man with no sense of history, no government experience, who lies habitually, with the character of a mongrel thief and sexual predator, a malignant narcissist, who does not read, who watches television incessantly, who is obsessed about his own ratings is now discovered to be totally over his head, out of element, ineffective, without a clue. What did we expect?
     As this historic unraveling occurs and as the vulgarian himself senses the tides are against him he responds with the news conference today that further confirms-this guy is trouble, is in deep trouble and means more trouble.
     Caught in more lies today, ranting about the media, obsessing with his own image, fixated on the election-which someone should tell him is over-he was trying again to divert attention from a list of liabilities, fault lines and a crumbling administration. World media has almost universally regarded the strange show as that, a very strange showing by a very strange President, in trouble. Divert as he may have tried, this Russian connection will not go away.
      His rants at CNN or his reliance on accusing the media of fake news, while he continues to lie, mixed with his incompetence, his acting as though being President is really just another reality tv show is rising to the level of an absurdest Shakespearean tragic comedy without peer. The sad thing however is he is still the President.
      How quickly will true Republicans begin to flee the stench? How will our professional corp of diplomats and statesmen keep some semblance of stability? When will those who cast their votes for this "change" realize they squandered their franchise on a certified loony?
      Those of us out here in the country can see the signs of a manic collapse. But pity those who work in government. Professionals in Washington are beginning to think and act in ways that are without precedent-at least since a lying Republican President  Nixon was undone. 
     This Russian concern-his bromance with Putin, his refusal to condone sanctions-that are justified and legal-the Flynn overtures, his own business entanglements-the MI 6 dossier-the Russian hack and manipulation of the election and who knows what else may not be the straw that breaks the camel's back, but several levels of serious investigation are under way.  A ranting, raving, lying campaign rally style news conference is not enough to divert attention. No amount of Kellyanne Conway or Sean Spicer's lies and diversions will turn it back. There is more to come. Professionals are working on it. There may be no smoking gun. Still, when you are less than a month into a rigged election the mind shudders at what else may come to pass. 
      Analyst Frank Rich, New York Magazine and former New York Times author said
        "But Trump is no Nixon: He doesn’t possess the brains, the discipline, the decades of experience of political and governmental combat, or the laser-focused Machiavellian cunning to sustain a Watergate-style cover-up."
        And always, always there is the need to watch his business intertwining. Did you notice that since he became President, the membership fees at his Florida spa have doubled to $200 thousand a year? Don't you imagine though he will donate those increased funds to the coal miners whose homes were foreclosed on by his appointees Mnuchin and Ross-the predatory default kings, part of his "swamp drain." 
       In the meantime wouldn't it be nice to impose a kind of buyers remorse clause in our electoral process. After a certain trial period we could throw the idiot out. Like an annulment. He makes you pine for the days of stockades, locks and dunking. Maybe we could raise funds for those coal miners and auto workers by allowing citizens to serially water board the liar. As he might say, "it's effective, really, really effective. I know. I know better than anyone. It's a fine thing, really fine."

         Now look out a window or take a walk, breath deeply and know this too shall pass. And we can hope soon so we can invoke another Watergate phrase "The American nightmare is over."

         See you down the trail. 
       

TRICKLES TO TORRENTS

Photo from GOES-16  Courtesy of NOAA via Agency France-Presse

           As my friend Tom said when reviewing the recently released photo, "Spaceship earth still looks pretty good, despite all of the abuse." Indeed it does.

          But it confronts us with the challenge of protecting it and all of us from a dangerous man. We look at that in a moment, but first we celebrate.

forces of nature

    The rains of January have turned Santa Rosa Creek in Cambria into a river. These shots, where the creek meets the Pacific, show how a normally trickling creek has re-contoured the beach.

  It has moved with such force as to cut embankments and deposit drift wood in piles.

emergency signals

    First a word to readers, an apology. When I began Light/Breezes 7 years and more than 1,000 posts ago it was not my intention to fill this space with political analysis or rants. It still is not. However 42 years of journalism including investigative and political reporting and international documentary work has shaped and instructed my world view. I have devoted more words to politics in the last couple of years because of the reality we are living. 
    During my career I assiduously tried to remain non-partisan. In my personal life I have been bi-partisan. I have voted for Democrats, Republicans and Independents. But I tell no one who I vote for. I am a pragmatist and favor those candidates who tilt toward solutions. I distrust all politicians and especially those who are ideologues. I admire those who engage in realpolitik.
    Some readers, and some friends have responded that I have been unfair to Donald Trump and so that brings us to the realpolitik of this moment.

                    

dump trump

     Donald Trump is a danger to this Republic. He lacks the skill, temperament, ability to reason, finesse, character and intellect required of the President. He is a liar, tax cheat, shifty business hustler, sexual predator, narcissist and is not smart enough to know he is being used. I will give him this, he knew his reality television show audience would love him and he knew both parties had ignored some who had been damaged by the near depression and the changing nature of work in America. 
      It is not just that he has no mandate, a minority president behaving as if he'd won by a landslide, I think he lacks the mental balance to hold the office. I have posted all of this but everyday bears it out. 
      That is about Trump, a sick and deplorable cretin. More important is what this means to everyone else?
     I would not assail you were it not a great challenge to our future in several ways. You can read better analysts or ethicists but I would think it failure and cowardice should I not use this opportunity to engage your concern. 
   This is not merely sour grapes, or simply disagreeing with policy or politics. You win and you lose, that is life. No, this is to support the case Trump is unfit and a danger. 

where do they stand?

     What about the Republican Party? What about Trump voters? Before we wade any deeper there is an undeniable reality at work. He is acting, via executive orders, to do things the majority of American voters disapprove. It is fact most Americans don't want him in the office. They certainly don't want him doing what he is and threatening not only this nation but the planet. Presently most Trump supporters are in denial of that, even his serial lies. 
      It is important the Republican party leadership stand up to and even challenge Trump. Sadly, it appears, Mitch McConnell and even Paul Ryan would like to have it both ways. They want to use Trump for their own advantage. Unless they make a break they will be seen as cowards.
      Think I have overstated that? Consider this-from a man who served as counsel for Condi Rice when she was Secretary of State. This is a conservative Republican speaking to others of that stripe. The writer is Eliot A. Cohen in the Atlantic. 

"For the community of conservative thinkers and experts, and more importantly, conservative politicians, this is a testing time. Either you stand up for your principles and for what you know is decent behavior, or you go down, if not now, then years from now, as a coward or opportunist. Your reputation will never recover, nor should it."

      Mr. Cohen is director of the Strategic Studies Program at Johns Hopkins, an author and a highly regarded international analyst.  Consider this as he echoes what former Presidents, national security, intelligence and military leaders have said of Trump.  

     Precisely because the problem is one of temperament and character, it will not get better. It will get worse, as power intoxicates Trump and those around him. It will probably end in calamity—substantial domestic protest and violence, a breakdown of international economic relationships, the collapse of major alliances, or perhaps one or more new wars (even with China) on top of the ones we already have. It will not be surprising in the slightest if his term ends not in four or in eight years, but sooner, with impeachment or removal under the 25th Amendment. The sooner Americans get used to these likelihoods, the better.

     I believe this. History has shown us a precedent. So, I am sorry if you come to this blog for something else, that I intrude  with these passionate thoughts. I write this as a defense for my daughters and my granddaughter. When I am gone I will have, at least, left an honest effort to help motivate people to think about the seriousness of how we live and respond, especially now, in the face of this unprecedented menace. 

 a future

     I will seek to guide this blog with photos, reflections and thoughts that are indeed filled with light. Still I will use the energy I have to cast light where it may illuminate.

     Now is not the time to bury your head in the sand and that is especially true for those of you who provided the minority votes that were enough to put this threatening menace in office. How much do you need to see? Millions around the world take to the streets, experts by the score warn about him, mental health experts offer their advice, he's already begun to destabilize international relations, he's replaced a military chief from his top council and replaced him by a Neo Nazi malcontent as strategist, he lies and obsesses about the size of a crowd, he believes he is above the law. It is madness. No administration in history has begun like this. Already social order is being pushed. When enough of you come to your senses it will help to remove this man.

     See you down the trail.