AND SO IT BEGINS....

 Winter has come to the California central coast.

  Christmas season has come to the Cochrun home, the creche is on the mantle.

    Since the girls were young the tree comes soon after Thanksgiving and this year we were fortunate to get an early gift of rain.

   And we commence our dreams of a green Christmas,

   Back in Indiana a rainy, misty day was not always a source of joy. We value those things that are rare.

    We used to make a journey over the river and through the woods to the magical twinkle shop at Watts Christmas Tree Farm. Grand daughter Addie finds the magic at the Christmas shop at the Cambria Nursery

   We'll see more from here in the days ahead. In the meantime we watch the forecast and the promise of more rain-a seasonal blessing here in the Republic.

    These are storm clouds in which we delight. The clouds over Washington bring a storm of another sort. 

rousting the rogue

   Mandated by Congress, the White House was forced to release a report issued by 13 federal agencies and because it flies in the face of the bogus claims of the rogue President, they tried to bury it. 

    Once citizens sober up from the shopping and feasting binge they will face the chilling the facts that were released the day after Thanksgiving. The findings are directly at odds with Trump administrations program of environmental deregulation. 

     The American economy will also suffer, unless steps are taken quickly to deal with global climate change. The 16 hundred pages lay out the devastation that will come to human health, the environment and the economy. 

      I doubt that Donald Trump or any of his ardent supporters will take the time to read the report. As we have seen in the last two years they live in a world of lies and fantasy and vented anger. I am angry too because my grand children will live in a world made worse by the stupidity of Trump and his supporters. 

      I agree with Tusli Gabbard, the veteran and congresswoman from Hawaii who called him a "Saudi bitch," and with those in the intelligence and military community who called him a "traitor." From before the election he has functioned as a "Russian stooge." Now he is a killer of children yet unborn who will likely inherit a damaged world. I am also angry that his legion of angry followers have no trouble with him undertaking the unprecedented action of challenging the legitimacy of the federal judiciary and a robust free press.

       He is not just stupid, unfit, unqualified, he is increasingly dangerous. Every day he remains in office he threatens the future. 

    Now we'll watch the Fox News Channel propagandists

and his angry, no-mind-of-their-own cult of followers try to talk back to 13 Federal agencies who are trying to warn the world. In Trumpland their own opinions are more important than facts or science. The lies and empty promises of their malignant leader are all they need. And that's all they get, lies and empty blather from an unsound and evil man.

    Storm clouds indeed!

     See you down the trail.

NIGHT MOVES and LIFE FILES

   Everything changes after dark. Streets have a different rhythm. Life takes on a night beat. Mystery looms. 

 

 stocking stuffers for melania

a new fillet knife

the lorena bobbit story

a get out of jail card

stocking stuffer for donald

a muzzle

life moves

     Summer and fall were devoted to organizing decades of work and preparing them for curation at the Indiana Historical Society and the Digital Repository at Bracken Library at Ball State University.

       Digital tapes of now historic episodes of life that were the substance of a life in broadcast journalism. Journalism is called the first draft of history. Melancholy is a companion of sorting through the stuff of a life. 

       Now collections management experts and archivists will handle a body of work and I trust historians, researchers and writers will find trailings of a time and culture and moments that once were important, or so they seemed. History rules when it comes to perspective.

       The bulk of the work has been sent. I have a few files, copy, research, clippings that I tarry over now and soon they too will take wing to find a home with other old stuff, for use again, in the future.

      See you down the trail.

A NATION OF LAW-A POLITICS OF FEAR AND FIRE

words are inadequate

    California grieves. The accounts and images of the hell of the Camp Fire in Northern California hit with such force as to knock the joy of life out of its fulcrum in our hearts. Our tears, depression, and abject sadness, as deeply as they are felt, are meager human echoes to the horrendous reality of those who lived and lost in Paradise and the surrounding area.

    The emotional toll conspires to knock this beautiful state out of its natural orbit of nature, light, creativity and a zest for life full speed ahead. The Woolsey Fire complex north of LA has destroyed iconic sets, scenes, famous homes and dreamy enclaves. Hundreds of thousands are upended and live on the edge of uncertainty. Those who survive shudder to think of the loss of life and they way they died.

    Somehow the sun shines less brightly.
    There is something that can and must be done-bury power lines. Trouble with lines are again the suspect in these fires. In a corporate calculus a board may reason it is too expensive. That is wrong. 
     Talk has begun in California legislative circles that a private energy company, a monopoly, is no longer the model that works. Time for evolution, for safety's sake, for the people's sake. 
      My friend Bob who writes the blog You've Got A Lot To Learn, found in the column to the right of this post, has written of his experience with the Ventura County fire.

a place away

     Not far from here, tucked into a hidden cove, stands an old fishing hut dating to the early 20th century. 
     The images are offered as metaphor for retreat, a place away from the complexity of these days.

but there is an accounting

the bill comes due

     At this juncture I can't help but think of the Dylan lyrics "and it's a hard rains a gonna fall." 

      Add together these clips:

      The US was horribly and embarrassingly "misrepresented" at the Armistice Day ceremonies in France.* The missed commemorative appearances will go down as some of the most offensive and despicable Presidential behavior in history, underscoring his unfitness.

      The repudiation of this rogue administration is about to escalate. It is telling when the Fox News organization, a right wing propaganda voice for most of its broadcast day, has joined in the legal action against the dictator-like banning of CNN reporter Jim Acosta. Fox joins ABC, NBC, Associated Press, Bloomberg News, New York Times, Politico, EW Scripps, USA, Washington Post, First Look and others in trying to block this usurpation of press freedom.

      This White House is also being sued for the appointment of a former shill of a fraudulent company and who is opposed to the Mueller probe, to be the Attorney General. Just contemplate that for a moment.

     No administration in history has had so many guilty pleas and indictments of high ranking staff and cronies and more are on the way. Now the First Lady is making a list of staff who should be fired. All of this is preparatory to what will happen when the subpoenas and investigations begin when the Democrats take leadership of the House. It may feel like a swarm of hornets.

     After watching and covering Presidents since 1965 I wonder if this man can hold up to the pressure of the onslaught. He is bloated, overweight, does not work out, has questionable sleeping habits and a furious temper. A major publication is out with an inquiry into his recent behavior and asking if there is something wrong with him. 

     Now that something is in place to challenge him, now that voters have tossed over some of the acquiescing sycophants, Donald Trump's life will be tougher than ever before. If he's got a breaking point, emotionally, politically or physically we may see it. The bill comes due sometime. And overarching all of this is the Mueller report, also due.

dollars but no sense

    At a time when this White House and the Republican party is driving the national deficit to all time highs and busting the budget, one must note Trump is blowing as much as $220 Million on sending troops to the border, even though the experts, the Generals, the Pentagon tell him they don't see the "caravan" as a risk. He's sent 6000 troops and says he may raise it to 15,000. This President calls the caravan an "invasion." In fact his irrational behavior is a diversion, an attempt to work up his base, an appeal to his racist and xenophobic supporters. But it is racism and he undertakes it at a huge economic loss to the nation. It's almost like going bankrupt when you own a casino.

how much is too much?

    Here's a money story that may blow your mind. Thanks to Bloomberg, Time Magazine, and Democracy Now we know that Amazon's Jeff Bezos was worth on May 1st $132 Billion. In January his worth was $99 Billion, so he's continuing to earn.

    Here are the stats. He makes $275 Million a day, that is $11.5 Million an hour, $191 thousand a minute or $3,182 every second.  The median salary for an Amazon employee is $28,000 a YEAR.  Bezos makes as much in 3 seconds as he pays his employees for a year of work.

the asterisk footnote

 *After watching his petulant appearances in Paris and hearing of his refusal to go to honor the fallen in Belleau Wood, or to take part in the multi nation march I thought a few Marines should grab him and give him a thrashing.
Those 50 plus Republicans who served in previous Republican White Houses and who published the ad saying he was unfit and unqualified should have been listened to by their fellow party voters. 

    A hard rains a gonna fall!

    See you down the trail.

 A Hard Rain's A Gonna Fall

Video of a young Bob Dylan performing

A Hard Rain's A Gonna Fall

      

WHITHER AMERICA?

a painted November sky in Morro Bay

whither America?

     At this moment let's leave red and blue out of the picture and think about something that is in the best interests of everyone. There is a visitor to this nation that threatens us with a brain and heart killing disease, despite what is our politics, personal belief, color, ethnicity, identity or dream. What threatens us all is the lack of reasoning.

    Emotion has become our operating system and it is to our detriment. The evidence is everywhere; in the way people "talk" to each other either in social media or face to face,  political advertising plays to emotion, our tone is inflammatory and emotional, objectivity and analysis is drowned out by volume and emotion. And of course we are divided by just about everything and we are very poor at being civil in our disagreements. 

    The history of the US is the history of disagreement and competing forces, ideas, beliefs and philosophy but we've always held together at the center, found compromise and accord with that one tragic exception.

a house divided

       For the next 726 days of your life and mine we find ourselves caged in the reality of the 2020 Presidential election. Count them off if you wish, but it will be an enormous challenge to tune them out. For our well being, for our survival, we need to change the tone and begin thinking.

     Objectivity and analysis need to override emotion but that too will be a challenge.

hacking the human heart and mind

       Ponder this briefly-James Bridle is a British writer/artist/thinker who wrote THE NEW DARK AGE-Technology And The End Of The Future. I heard him interviewed recently where he makes the case the digital and networked world is increasingly influencing human behavior and especially in advertising and media. Algorithms impact almost every aspect of our social interaction and consumer behavior now. Bridle asks what happens when technology knows your likes and dislikes to such a degree that it can purposely hack your emotions-to the extent it can affect your pulse rate, your sense of well being, by controlling the information you see and hear.

      His concern is that an artificial intelligence, an algorithm will "reason" the best way to get you to do or like something is to manipulate you, relentlessly.

     We humans are and have been doing that to and with each other, maybe forever. But now we've become so emotional, so overloaded by loud and divisive voices, with so few places for retreat and sanctuary that we are a bundle of frayed nerves and trigger fingers and tongues. Add the sophistication of AI and we've just upped the chances of disaster. And that is made even more sinister when adversaries, like enemy powers or rogue agents try to intrude  like perhaps in our election cycles.

our hearts at the mid term

     A few tea leaves to read here-if a state is 2/3 white, Democrats lose, Republicans win. Educated women vote Democrat. White women without a college degree vote Republican. 

     Florida restores the right to vote to 1.4 million felons, most of whom are black. This in a state where the governors race was decided by some 74 thousand votes.

     In voting for House and Senate seats Democrats pulled 13 million votes more than Republicans.

     Suburbs and urban areas are consistently Democrat. Rural areas are consistently Republican. Educated professionals vote Democrat. What was once considered "blue collar" seem to be voting Trump Republican. The less education one has the more likely they are to vote Republican. That is almost a direct reversal of the way it was just a few years ago.

     There are of course other divides and the analysis will continue. Some things are certain-the government is divided.

     The House is under control of Democrats who will now have subpoena power. There are public matters they will push and that could include seeing this President's tax returns, exploring his families business ties and entanglement with the business of government, the Russian meddling inquiry, Jared Kushner's business interests, what and how did the White House limit the investigation into sexual assault allegations against Judge and now Justice Kavanaugh, the sexual assault allegations against the President.

      The Mueller investigation also hangs over both the White House and the US Capitol.

      How will we behave for the next 726 days? The President's news conference Wednesday morning didn't bode well. Do citizens still expect something called "Presidential behavior?" Do we still believe that a man or woman should "rise" to the office? Do we think that a free press asking hard questions still has a place in a free society? Do we still believe that all people regardless of color, ethnicity, gender and identity should be free? Do we still believe the confederacy was wrong? Do we still believe the Nazi ideology is outside the bounds of accepted human behavior? Do we still believe the conviction of Nazi war criminals outlawed that belief for all time? Do we still believe the KKK and other white supremacists have no place in a civil society? Do we believe that pandering to the basest among us is wrong?  Do we believe that a politics of ridicule, division and hate is wrong? Do we believe we should govern toward the center? Do we believe we should listen to each other? Do we believe we can find a middle ground and compromise? What do we believe is American?

       See you down the trail.