Honestly, kids!

Sierra Nevada 

    For the sake of history, this is unavoidable, though I've tried. It's for Addie and Henry, for when these present days of ours have become history.

     I've been listening, reading, staring at the sky, the mountains  and just thinking. Here it comes. 

     Honesty is strength. Behaving with virtue will enable Humans to exist. The prospects of survival, as individuals and as a specie, are extended if navigated by the courage of telling the truth. 

hard truth

     The DNA of the US includes racism and genocide. It brings sadness to think of why that is so, but those circumstances are antecedents of our present strife. It has always been such.

     The USA's piece of this American continent had an extensive history of population and culture before the arrival of representatives of European Royal Society and Trading Companies "laying claims," and declaring sovereignty. 

    Even the notion of "discovering" the land carries with it a shortsighted and naive ethnocentrism. It is also imperious.

     And yet here we are, the end product of a process that began by European culture, in many iterations, stealing land, and trying to lord it over the culture and history that was here.  

     To assume the Spanish, Dutch, French, English, Italians, or others were better than those who lived here is itself a seed of the very racism and intolerance that courses through our mixed blood line and that plagues us today.

     Few people want to put their head around that. It is not something of which to be proud, though some are.

    It is a truth some seek to deny and most choose to ignore. It is an ignorance that allows our destructive chimera to breath.

    Europeans settled here and initiated behavior that was an invasion. Land and property were stolen, populations were deliberately killed, local culture, government, and religion was over run and outlawed. In time, even after we fought our war of liberation, our national government made and broke treaties and lied and sent the army to suppress, control and kill. It is true. That is who we are, in part.

     We are also people who have risen up and struggled against arrogant power and abuse to win gains though it has required hard fought struggles over two centuries
    The suffragettes suffered horribly, just to win women the right to vote. Pay equity is still a fight.

    Our immigration policy has been inconsistent, politically used and abused, and randomly capricious for ever. Yet emigre's enrich our culture and always have. 

    The War of the Rebellion, referring to the official compilation of the records is the detailed history of the years this nation spent years killing each other over the matter of slavery.    

     Slavery was not an American invention but it became an inherent part of our invention. The Founders owned slaves. African Americans were not full Americans, were considered only 3/5 human and were evaluated that way as much as convenience of economy and finance as personhood. 

      We have never fully healed or recovered from what the war seared into our psyche. 

     There has been no resolve for the slaughter of indigenous nations or the crimes committed against them in the name of US citizens. 

   This old Tee, a beloved gift from my daughters, expresses

a plank of my politics. It is true.  

   These are ugly times because ignorance is widespread, the president plays on fear, Putin's Russia is working overtime to divide and destabilize us, it is an old art of war and espionage. 

    Too many pay too little attention. We are occupied with our diversions, or in our own silo of information, or just not thinking. And so we repeat mistakes. 

why not emulate success?

    In the 1960's when President Lyndon Johnson pushed the Civil Rights legislation proposed by John Kennedy, who was killed in November 1963, he had to overcome the power of racists in the US Senate, even members of his own Democrat party. Working with his moderate and liberal Democrat allies he reached across the political aisle to the Senate Republican Leader Ev Dirksen of Illinois. They did political deal making and the US finally passed both a Civil Rights Law and a Voting Rights Act. 

a rise of regressives

     Today the president is a racist. Republicans work for suppressing voting rights. The Senate Republican leader is an obstructionist, behaving like both a racist and a Russian enabler. 

    The Democrats have no central party leader and they are dicing each other trying to gain advantage in the presidential campaign. They are divided between moderates, liberals and progressives. 

    The Trump government separates families, cages children, refuses to act on the outrage of gun violence, is led by an irrational liar who does not read nor understand history. 

      But we never truly step into the same river again, currents like time move on.
       Our history defines shifts, changes, improvements, advances, and progress too. We hope a wave of change will rid the government of regressives and bigots in our next election. And we hope the election is fair and secure and that we again respect knowledge, information and learning.
      Addie, Henry, I hope by the time you somehow retrieve these thoughts from Poppy, you will find that we have again listened to our better angels and sought to make life better for everyone. That we uphold human dignity and liberty. And that we do so by telling the truth, recognizing our faults and working to make ourselves better people and the world a better, safer, healthier, happier place. Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness are good political objectives. From where you are I hope all of this looks like a temporary aberration, like a recurrent bout of a vestigial infection that we slowly are trying to cure. I hope you are safe once again, though vigilant.

     See you down the trail

 

In the weeds....

we need a little more light

     After four nights of "debates" some thoughts emerge.

• By next summer when the Trump campaign and the Democrat candidate's organization meet to discuss a debate format they should agree to avoid inviting any networks to the planning discussions.

      The Fox "Town Halls," the MSNBC Nights of Ten and the CNN Debate are not working nor are they helpful. The Fox sessions have been the most revealing. The CNN outing was  particularly goofy.

      The CNN questioners came off as more interested in provoking confrontation and argument rather than exploring issues and leadership qualities. The questions were contrived and off the point. They may think setting up "battles" and provoking challenges will hold audience, but they do little of value. And sadly most of the candidates took the bait. We are a culture showing signs of intellectual decline. 

       

• Most of the questions were framed about issues that exceed Presidential mandate or control. 
• Health care for example is the province of the legislative branch. A President may help shape his or her party's position, but the House and the Senate write the law and the President approves or not. LBJ exercised some influence over Medicare but he was a powerful legislative force, the likes of which no longer exist. Obamacare was the work of the House and Senate. Getting into minutia is meaningless, but it gives the candidates a chance to argue with each other.
• Ditto immigration policy. A President's view is not unimportant, but any meaningful immigration reform will come from Capitol Hill. Does the candidate have an idea about how to fix the problem? Hear it and move on, the specifics, the details will be something other than what any of the candidates say.
• US voters like to probe and poke Presidential candidates, but often a President's major action is in reaction, to legislation more more likely to events at home and abroad. It's good to know the measure of a candidate's mettle, but there's been more peripheral and contrived controversy in what we've seen so far. It's resembled a cattle call.

the democrat road show

    The Democrats have shown they have a wide range of candidate philosophy, from moderate right to progressive.

     Who speaks to and for voting constituencies that will control the election outcome? The long political season will help to shake it out.  

       

    Joe Biden is the target now. With his decades of service his long record is being picked apart by Harris, Gillibrand  Booker, De Blasio, and others. He has what they don't, poll numbers. As the Front runner he's a target, but that's lame politics and dangerous. 
     What debaters say now could make it a challenge to take back and/or support the eventual candidate. Taking each other apart is off target, off message, damaging, and not helpful. It is a silly sport.
       All of the Demos want improvement in the health care system and want to stop Trump's destruction of what is left of the Affordable Care Act. They argue about how to do it. A legislative process will deliver the specifics, but viewers are being given a chance to see the wide range of Democratic thinking and that maybe helpful, to a point. 
      Elizabeth Warren keeps telling us she has a plan. They all should and it would be more helpful to hear those plans than the kind of wonky food fight we've seen so far. More intelligent and less confrontationally contrived questions would help.
     

a long way up

    I heard a long time Washington insider, a veteran of Capitol Hill, campaigns and the media say if there was truly a leader of the Democrat Party, she or he would get all of the candidates in the same room and remind them the person to defeat is Donald Trump and the message should be to the public, not to play act in some silly charade game like the TV debates have been.

     Two long shots have sounded wise and for the most part stayed out of the tit for tat food fight.  Tulsi Gabbard and Pete Buttigieg have appeared to be thoughtful and less combative, though Gabbard hit Harris hard on Health Care.

Interestingly, they are both military veterans and have been tested by more than political bull shit. 

    

     If I were advising a candidate I'd tell them their core audience should be working women with children and the overlay would be 18 to 45 year old working people. The outer core of voter would be women 45 plus. 

     Those groups are both urban and rural.  I may be entirely wrong. I've been covering politics since 1964 and my hunches have been both spot on and dead wrong. My gut tells me women voters are the jackpot in 2020. And, according to the Sevareid rule, I reserve the right to change my mind. 

     See you down the trail. 

The Clash

     At the most riven time in US history, the President held valiantly to our motto "e Plurbus Unum," out of many, one.
     There are many from several disciplines and views who think we are a nation as divided as anytime since the War of the Rebellion.
     In your own way, reflect on the nature and character of the President then and the president now.
     The public hearings of the House Intelligence Committee and the House Judiciary Committee, hearing from Robert Mueller, puts before our eyes the true state of our union. It is a vivid examination of not merely leadership, but of followers. I think it exposes some not so obvious fractures in the federation of cultures that compose our modern state. 

a time of separation

      --There is an America disturbed by the Russia invasion of our electoral process, and there is an America uncaring and perhaps even unaware.

       --There is a clash of public function. There is the old guard, "play it by the book," even taciturn discipline of process and function, best represented by Robert Mueller and those who respect a Constitutional diligence. And there are those besotted of modern hysterics of media, performance and political posturing.

      Members of the House and media practitioners were distributed on both sides of that divide. Some were wed to the solemnity of the ordeal while some were looking more for performance and "passion" or looking to score political gains, no matter how silly the behavior.

      --There was a clear difference in tone, depth and outcome of the Judiciary Committee hearing and the Intelligence Committee hearing.

       Some of that can be attributed to the thorny matter of the Department of Justice restrictions on indicting a sitting President and the resulting challenge of making a case of obstruction. The matter of the Russian participation in the electoral process operated in different legal lanes. The former more hamstrung and controversial, the later a breach to our national security. 

       This writer thought the House Intelligence Committee was superbly organized, cogent, concise and that Chairman Schiff was brilliant in his opening and closing case statements.

the important standard

         --The hearings were successful in exposing the importance of ethics and morality. It was clear in his response to questions Mueller articulated what Americans think, or should think, about the need for a candidate, especially for President, to behave ethically as well as legally. The standard is higher than the mere technicality of the law. He made that point well and with enough power it even shut up the bizarre Devin Nunes. 

        The nation watched a Bronze Star and Purple Heart Marine combat veteran, former prosecutor, FBI director and Special Counsel expose and discuss the behavior of men who actively engaged in sleazy and unpatriotic behavior. The contrast between the reticent Mueller and the narcissistic lies of the president screams of our own sad condition.

a government of the people

      So now the legislative end of Washington seeks what to do about an administration that was favored by the Russian meddlers, who sought to make money from Russian real estate deals, who participated with the Russians, who sought to give Russia a break on sanctions, and who lied to the public repeatedly about all of that.

     Most of the key players in the inner circle have pled guilty and been sentenced to prison. Had he not been the president that man too would have been charged. He still faces that peril after he departs office. In the meantime they engage in a cover up and refuse to cooperate with congressional investigations. They breach the historic balance of power and equal branches of government. And it seems their primary motive is greed. 

     The president was a known commodity, known for tax cheating, dishonesty, cheating partners and contractors, so none of this is a surprise, but it is an offense to our nation.

so which way from here?

        It is important to ask in this our own riven time. Cultural, political, ethical, governmental fractures and clashes abound.  

        Our divides are deep and serious, but not so much as those Lincoln faced. Unlike now, the President was a man of depth, and conviction. His concerns were not about how to line his own pocket, or to be the center of attention, seeing life simplistically as though it were a television program. He wanted the Union to hold. One cannot be blamed for wondering if the current President has a real knowledge of that history. 

       Our clashes are rooted in a sense of values and decency. Do we respect the history and purpose of our constitutionally ordained governmental process? Do we want foreign interference in our elections? Do we want leaders who try to make foreign real estate deals and then lie about it? Do we want presidents who lie, habitually? Do we want presidents who try to obstruct justice? Do we want presidents who try to cover up and obfuscate? Do we want a president who childishly thinks Article 2 makes him a monarch or dictator? Do we want a once value based and respectable Republican party to continue to act like accomplices in a slow moving coup? Do we still believe in the idea of e Plurbis Unum? Is America better than Donald Trump? Is he who we are?

      The hearings may not have been the "report turned into a movie"-a silly and demeaning idea anyway-but they gave citizens a chance to plumb the depth of the corrupt, venal  and rogue president. It also provided those who will not take the time to read deeply, to learn just how serious the Russians are about manipulating us. Are we serious enough to give a damn and to change things?

       

      See you down the trail.

How much, America?

    The scene just might be the most loathsome and repugnant ever to occur in the Oval office.

     American heroes Michael Collins and Buzz Aldrin, the surviving Apollo 11 crew, captured in the tempest as the rogue president walks back his walk back. 

     Those two brave men, who participated in one of humankind's great achievements, both of them now chasing 90 years, were miserably uncomfortable and needlessly and senselessly became chattel and collateral damage. It should never have happened.

      America and history owes them an apology for needing to endure the fetid drama that envelopes the deranged president. 

     Collins and Aldrin represent America at its best. The occupant of the White House, already considered the worst, simply corrupts and destroys. He had no business being in the presence of Collins and Aldrin. It would be a good thing if someone in leadership and authority issued an apology on behalf of the vast majority of US Citizens and the people of the world who see the president for what he is and who despise him and his behavior.

of that behavior....

      To my mind, one of the best uses of recording was the play back of the smug mugging he did, as his racist and nazi like mob broke forth in their hateful and truly anti American chant. There he was, looking left and looking right and smugly puckering as the hate crime went on for 13 seconds.

     Despite his weltering, all the world could see the lie.

not about politics or policy

     His mental illness makes him a danger in high office. Those who support him, pose a danger. Their combined lack of civility pose a danger. His and their racism pose a danger. His chronic deception makes him a danger. His stunted intellect makes him dangerous in high office. He has always been a cheat, liar, sexual predator, and arrogant. The sycophantic behavior of the bogus republicans is also a danger. It is enabling behavior.

     He is a clear and present danger. Heaven knows we are exhausted and frustrated as a nation. And we are divided: those who understand the danger and those who are the danger.

a meme to share

a moment of beauty

   Yet another magnificent orchid cactus bloom. Thanks for enduring another post about you know who. The world doesn't need another opinion, but some things need saying. 

And someday I want my daughters and grand children to understand, some of us did what we could to slake the evil of hatred, bigotry, prejudice, ethnocentrism and the destruction of civility and honor, to say nothing of the devastation of our environment. 

    See you down the trail.  

      

     

     

"You've got to have a sense of humor..."

"sitting on the dock of the bay 

wasting time..."

    Frank was a honcho at Cal Tech, and JPL (Jet Propulsion Laboratory) back in the heyday of the space race. Some of his underlings have won Nobel prizes for science. He is modest, so I will say it, he's brilliant and one of the sharpest minds to inhabit this planet.

    Frank will often remind us at our monthly dinners, "You've got to have a sense of humor!" This is a man who in his mid 80's was still climbing a ladder to his roof. He's also devoted years to reading history. 

   Hearing "you've got to have a sense of humor" from a man who has calculated how to stare more deeply into space so as to look further back in time" carries credibility.

    

    My mother was a believer in the principle of laughing at least three times a day. She was a fan of Norman Cousins and his advocacy of laughter as a healer. Medical science has caught up with mom and Cousins and there is data that explains how laughter is indeed very healthy and healing. 

      I was considered a "serious" little boy and so mom would tell me to go outside and watch the clouds. I still love to watch clouds. And now I stare at the tide. My dad would sit, zen monk like, watching the tide, whenever family vacations took us to the shore. I get it dad. 

     So, if you happen along on the California central coast and find an old boomer staring at the tide rolling away, maybe humming Otis Redding's ditty or laughing at seemingly nothing, know that you have encountered a guy who is taking advice, from those far more wise than he.

      And in this day and age, if you can't laugh at what's going on, you'd cry!

explosive news

    I, like a couple of thousand other folks, was a bit mystified by the local fireworks.

        They opened strong. I think I even muttered, this is more like a finale.

     Turns out, something went wrong. It began with the end and it could have been worse. My source is the diligent local reporter Kathe Tanner who has revealed the story.

   After starting like gangbusters, things slowed, and then it was as if things went crazy.  They did....

    Kathe reports in our local weekly The Cambrian that a new pyrotechnic specialist, utilizing a new electronic system, goofed. The intended end of the show opened the display and then things went down hill. The intended 20 minutes display was over in 7-9 minutes. A lot of stuff went off at once. 

     It was an exciting 7 minutes though. Those of us down then beach thought it looked a little wild at the park, where the aerials were launched.

     Back story here---the fire Marshall and the fire chief was about to shut it down because the launch area was too close to the folks in the park. A rapid negotiation followed by moving people further away, allowed the show to go on. However the new pyro, unfamiliar with Cambria, was sending stuff up in a wrong sequence and still too close to people and homes.  He could have used Frank's satellite and telescope calculus expertise.

      It's become a matter of local "fireworks" over the fireworks. Ash and debris landed where it should not. It took two or three days to clean the beach and nearby neighborhood. And then when you consider the complaints of pet owners with terrified dogs and cats, and the complaints of naturalists worried about birds and wild life, we've got a local hubbub underway.

        Don't you feel a chuckle coming on? 

        The belly laugh is for our Labor Secretary and his boss! Not even Carl Hiaasen could make up stuff like that. 

         I think mom would be getting in maybe 300 laughs a day.

       See you down the trail

Which is it?

July 4, 1912- Huntington Indiana

Photo Courtesy of Indiana Historical Society

   Our session on non-violence veered into the topic of patriotism vs jingoism. An interesting conversation followed, probing, defining, and, I thought, a conversation appropriate for this nation at this time. 
     At the least people could afford themselves time to think about the difference between patriotism and jingoism, in light of their own attitudes. It would be a patriotic thing to do.
    Patriotism, a pride in what this nation has done that is honorable and good and an acknowledgement of errors and wrongs is healthy. One sided patriotism is not healthy. Both the good and the bad need to be measured. 
    Jingoism is dangerous and is the province of the stupid.
    The current president is a jingoist. Dangerous because he suffers a mental illness that distorts reality. But he is also dangerous because he is ill informed and dangerous too because he lies almost all then time. 
     His desire for a military parade is not without precedent, but it is jingoistic, as he is, and it is stupid because he has no concept of the context. Veteran analyst and political correspondent Jeff Greenfield observed this on Politico:  

      "...history also suggests there's a good reason that his plan is rubbing people the wrong way. For one, it really is rare; it; far more common for presidents to vacate Washington on the Fourth of July, or to remain at the White House, than to insert themselves into the proceedings.

            And on a more troubling level, what Trump is doing is wreathing himself in the most potent symbols of American history-delivering a speech on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, site of the 1963 March on Washington, looking across at a landscape of monuments-without any appreciation for the history that made that whole landscape possible. Perhaps uniquely among American presidents, he sees himself without any connection to the American story, any link to presidents past, other than his manifest superiority to any of them."
         
         Greenfield notes the sure sign we are dealing with 
an unbalanced man who acts as if he aspires to be a dictator, like those he embraces;

         "Trump prefers to think of himself as the lone, overarching figure who can bend history to his will. "I alone can fix it," he said..."

           He offends sensibility and decency which explains the undeniable fact that a majority of Americans voted for someone else, despite the Russian interference. 

         The American pageant has its sordid and despicable chapters and this is the latest. We have survived our past sins and we have worked over the centuries to improve, to broaden human dignity and to extend liberty. We have been courageous and generous and we will be again. But we came upon this continent as terrorists, invaders, practitioners of genocide and ethnic cleansing. We were slavers, chauvinists, sexists, classists, drunks, racists, xenophobes, cheaters and liars. But some two centuries has refined us and forced us into a stream of history where we are bending toward a better nature, a more civilized and decent nation. We will survive and overcome regressives and new racists like Trump and McConnell. 

           As much as we might desire to be like Moses and call down a plague on the house of the Pharaoh, that is not for us.

        We are the heirs of Democratic Republicans who have battled on philosophy, policy, politics and who have changed positions and minds, but have since the beginning been combined in a hatred of tyrants, kings and dictators. That is a common creed we share. The president we see is not "American," his behavior is anathema to our history, he is not us. We are not his minions and not his subjects. We are his employer and we will not forget that, despite what may be seen on TV or read on twitter.

          The Fourth of July reminds of throwing off a tyrant, of declaring Independence, of being ready to stand in the breech to combat evil oppression. In this season, think about patriotism and jingoism and maybe read the Declaration. Happy Fourth!

blooming for the 4th

     

         Cheers!

         See you down the trail.

The Last Of The Old Boys...

    Calvin Coolidge was President when John Angel was born and though he had reached into his advanced years he never lost a sparkle in his eye, or zest for a good joke. That long and good run has come to an end.

     John was the surviving founder of a group that gathered each Wednesday and Sunday at 4PM for a cigar, coffee and friendship.

Phil Allen and Reg Perkins were the other founders. John, Reg, and Phil cultivated the friendship and grew the group for some 30 years.

    Phil invited me into the group when I showed up in Cambria in 2007, a recent retiree and knowing no one in the village.

     It was the place to learn the local lore and ways, find the best plumber, electrician or repairman, hear great stories and  hilarious jokes. But mostly it was about friendship.

  A WW II vet, John had been in sales, he called himself a peddler. Also a vet, Reg had been a battalion chief on the LA Fire Department. Phil had been in sales and one of the smartest investors anywhere. 

   But these old boys were active. John and Reg served on the local government board. They were officers in a benevolence society that did charitable giving, the Odd Fellows. Reg and his wife founded the annual Easter Egg hunt, and Cambria's Anonymous Neighbors, a group that delivers medical supplies, operates a community bus, drives people to medical appointments and more. Phil was  active in his church and a significant philanthropist. Up to just a few of months ago, John still hosted a community forum, was secretary of the Odd Fellows and drove errands for people, as he approached his mid 90's.  

    Phil called it the "prayer meeting" though his wife Nan called it "smoke and joke!" Eventually it became a Sunday afternoon only gathering and some of the younger recruits introduced wine. 

    These guys were role models for we boomers. They filled their years with meaning and never lost the joy of being with the boys or enjoying life despite losses, illness and setbacks.

     Phil was the first to go. About a year ago Reg just went to sleep in his favorite recliner. Ray, Dick and I went to visit John last week and were shocked by his decline. We had seen him just 4-5 weeks earlier and though slowing down, he was still full of sparkle and good wit.

     These men were my first friends as I entered a new chapter of my life. 

      After John lost his beloved Sally several years ago he was over at house for dinner. Lana asked him if he could cook. 
      Not at all he said. 
      She asked if Sally had a crock pot.

      Yes he said and she had a freezer full of meat as well.

      Lana gave him instructions and for years when he hosted our Sunday gathering, his house was fragrant with his latest crockpot "creation."  

      John had a way of making his presence know, did not suffer fools easily, spoke his mind, volunteered most of his days and loved a good story, and especially the time with "the guys."

      We saw pictures of John when he worked for Westinghouse and was a pitchman for one of their divisions. He looked like a David Niven marquee idol. He was always nicely turned out, though the guys kidded him about his white bucks, that may have been as old as some of us. His WWII uniform still fit. He was proud of eating broccoli everyday. And he missed Sally something terrible. 

Ray, part of the youth movement

Dick also a boomer.

Reg, Glen and Griff

Paul-the class of the group

      Bill, Dick, Ray, Paul, Griff, Gary, Glen and I should gather one of these summer Sunday afternoons and pay tribute to our "three Musketeers" and we should keep going "the prayer meeting" smoking, joking and all. Friendships never end.

    Letting you in on a little secret here-John was frequently  kidded about always smoking his cigar in an uneven and precarious manner. He's caught here looking at yet another uneven smoke, for which he was again unapologetic!

     Rest in peace old friend.  

      See you down the trail.