Fire Season

    Nerves are on edge during fire season on the west coast.

Californians track where fires are active, stay in touch with friends, pray, and wonder how anyone can deny the worsening impact of climate change. We also ponder the interface between nature, wilderness, where and how we build, and our methods of forestry and fire control. We also live with the impact.

    The frame above is the top of an umbrella on our front deck. It is ash from the Dolan Fire which is raveging our beloved Big Sur, less than an hour up the Pacific Coast Highway.

   It is better today, but we've experienced an ash fall that has coated the central coast and made the air unfit for outdoor activity.

   Above-ash particles captured in spider webs. Below-on our deck surface.

    We've had ash in previous years, but not to this extent, even a couple of years ago when the Chimney Fire threatened the famed Hearst Castle just 6 miles from here.

    This ash fall is a minor thing. Lives have been lost, communities and homes destroyed, daring helicopter rescues have been necessary and thousands of fire fighters risk their lives in California, Oregon and Washington.

         Like many others, I spent time today in line at the car wash.

    On trip number one my granddaughter thought of the experience as a kind of ride. It was her first, and we passed the time in line looking at old movie clips. She told me about an Adam Sandler movie Transylvania, where he is "Drac-lee-a" so I introduced her to Bela Lugosi. 
     "Old time movie Drac-lee-a is not nice, is scary" she said.
    The "ride" diverted her attention, she and her mother had been fretful about the ash. 

    The second visit offered time to check email and read a couple of articles. 

     Since last week's heat wave, we've been lucky to have overnight fog and cooling temperatures. Anything of that nature is a blessing, here and to those in the fire zones.

          A man from LA who came north to escape smoke, said on our local NPR station, "the sky looks like something from a Batman movie." 

       If only all of this was just special effects. 

       September and October on the Central Coast can be spectacular and pristine and each day is like a jewel. But there are times, when fires intrude, that we desire our internal clocks to speed away until rain season can begin.

When it is good, it is as good as it can be. But at times we do a dance with our nerves. And we are heartbroken by the news from elsewhere.

       Stay well, stay safe.

       See you down the trail.

Q quarreling...Roses...Tomatoes

   Roses to you, in fact roses to all of us who have endured the horror show of 2020. Living through the pandemic has been demanding enough, but the political/cultural skirmishes have pushed us to new and uncomfortable places.

    Economic woes, as personal financial crises, concern over children's education and well being, and personal health worries have driven far too many in the nation to the brink.

    So, enjoy the roses from Lana and a diversion about tomatoes. The analysis piece of this post comes later. 

the crop report 

    Growing tomatoes is a big deal when you grow up in Indiana. 

     Bless her heart, my mom set out tomato plants every year but I am hard pressed to remember there ever being a bounty of the summer fruit. We ended up buying them from farmers and growers or were gifted them by neighbors who had more luck.

      Luck changed when Lana entered my life. Her mother was a master gardener, and it must be in the genes. Lana has lamented that living on a hill side on a ridge affords precious little flat ground. So she has taken to what I call the Frank Phillippi school of tomato growing.

        The crop is distributed in pots. My pal Frank amazed me decades ago when he was living in an apartment in Georgetown with a tiny balcony and a couple of sunny windows where he introduced his tomatoes in pots technique.

     A few years later when he owned a home in Alexandria, but with limited sunny garden space, he upped his game by putting the pots in wagons and moving them into the sun.

       People from Indiana will swear the best tomatoes and corn are their province. They are indeed joys of an Indiana summer, but we've found excellent corn and tomatoes here  in the California Republic.

     If you are a long time reader you will recall we've experimented with our tomato crops. We've sheltered them in visquine "huts," wrapped them in plastic, and have tried raised beds. This summer it's pots, in sunny and warm zones on the back hill and at the back of the house.

      I'm a devotee of the San Marzano and yellow varieties.

      Lana is not overly fond of tomatoes, except in cooking, but she put out a variety this year and they seem to be flourishing. She complains that she's not growing enough to "put them up" or can them as she did when she gardened Indiana's flat land.

      Another favorite is the cherry tomato. And again she's got a prolific pot. Next year though, she's got designs on a piece of the hillside where flowers may make way for a new tomato bed. "They need to be in the ground," she insists. That means some ground work, flattening, perhaps roto tilling and soil amending will be on the fall and winter do list. 

a mask-less confab

     Generations hence will find this time fraught with lunacy and perhaps inexplicable behavior. 
      In unpacking how we got to a Trump, they will learn he is the poster boy for a fractured culture where self indulgence   and entertainment challenged thoughtfulness and a common good. 
      There were some during the Spanish Influenza pandemic in 1918 who refused to wear masks. There were super spreader events even then. 
      Xenophobes, nationalists and white supremacists have always been with us, but usually marginalized by an intelligent society and a conscientious political code. 
       Science has had its doubters forever, but for most of our history the ignorant have lacked political power.
       Conspiracy theories probably began with the dawn of humankind. 
       What makes this time different is the ubiquitous hum of media, mass and social, and combined with the intellectual decline of the nation. It is exacerbated by the tectonics of media economics that has left us with fewer gate keepers, fact checkers, time tested aggregators, trusted delivery systems, and the rise of the importance of opinion. We forget everyone has one. The value of opinion was once commensurate with the quality of a life experience, training and education. Now blowhards make their living bloviating and sad, weak, easily led, ill informed people, challenged with thinking, allow others tell them what to think.
      And so we have Trump, and now Q. 
    

textures and shapes

     

battling Q's 

      I would not be surprised to learn that Steve Bannon is somehow a godfather to the Q silliness. It fit's his MO of cultivating fringe and marginalized and intelligence challenged demographics.
     He may have nothing to do with it. Maybe Bill Maher was not joking when a couple of years ago he admitted to being Q.
     I'm sorry, if you think there is a shred of credibility in any of the QAnon goofiness, you have just relinquished your privilege to speak about anything other than fairy tales, and cleaning out horse stables.

     a true Q?

      If you are interested in intrigue about the idea of the letter Q, then do a little reading about the Q source used in Biblical criticism and scholarship.
      For some 120 years scholars and theologians have discussed, debated and studied what is called the Q source-a compendium of statements and thoughts attributed to Jesus, the radical, reformist rabbi for whom Christianity owes its origins. Some hypothesize these thoughts of Christ were drawn from the faiths early oral tradition and thus explains how and why some of the Gospels are similar.
     The research, scholarship and debate is fascinating and endlessly more stimulating that thinking Donald Trump is the savior of the world, doing battle with pedophiles, the deep state and aliens. 
      I've been saying for almost 4 years, Trumpism is fascism, and authoritarianism. Some of you Trumpists and/or QAnon devotees may read this as Trump is the Anti-Christ. I'm not saying that. But believe it if it will help you come to your senses. 
     Jesus might get a kick out of that.

  

    Stay safe. Take care of each other.

    See you down the trail.

Sucker's Reality

         Some of you will get this, quickly. Some of you may not,

    and therein is the source of my consternation.  I liken this to explaining the fog to my grandchildren.

     It can move in quickly and paint blue skies with a muted and damp grey. Sunshine and cheer can be enveloped in a shroud, rapidly.
    Welcome to Trumpworld!

non conventional

    My life as a journalist, and a sense of fair play compelled us to watch the Republican National Convention. While I wondered what America they were in, I was glad most major news organizations did their own running fact checks and lie detectors.
    It was a carnival of side show hustlers, con artists, weird creatures (why was Kimberly Guilfoyle shouting?) violations of the law, twisted logic, liars and even better liars, shades of  Mussolini and Cry for Me Argentina, but slickly produced with an emphasis on optics and a fireworks display.
   Melania was the default hero as she spoke with a degree of compassion about the victims of the virus her husband helped to kill by his ineptitude, arrogance and imperial ego. 
    She was certainly the best of the Trumps who seemed to dominate the speakers list. Don Jr still has the world wondering what he was on or if his power drinks were laced with lab cocaine and/or amphetamines. 
    Many have praised Mike Pence for being able to say the President's name so many times while his lips remained firmly attached to his bosses butt, in the kisses required to stay in his good graces.
    Democrats are threatening to go after Trumpworld for their  disrespectful abuse of the White House, the violation of 200 years of presidential tradition to not use the people's house for political spectacle, and for a potential violation of the Hatch Act. They should investigate and if need be prosecuted, even if the President's Chief of Staff says "no one outside the beltway cares about the Hatch act."
    Trump as violated and offended, disrespected and trashed  Presidential custom, behavior, deportment and protocol so many times all of his predecessors are either appalled or spinning in their graves. And he is the least qualified, most unfit, and probably the dumbest of the lot. He is also a minority president who has lied to the American people, documented and fact checked, thousands of times. 
     So when you have all of that as the fodder for a national convention, historically, without a platform, without inviting any former President or Presidential Nominee, and when many of his Quisling congressional cowards avoided even showing up, you know it's going to be a weird show.

alternative reality

     Trump built his reputation as a reality show star and the convention gave his core, his base, most of whom were his television fans, a spectacle; Hail to Donnie, who has elevated from the Apprentice to Imperial High Lord of a fabulist world, so far from truth and reality as to threaten this nation's existence and world stability. 
     When you put a man who ran a fraudulent University, went broke running a gambling casino, bankrupted an airline, couldn't get loans from legitimate banks, was bank rolled by Russian Mafia, lost money selling steaks, lost money selling his own deal making book, lost money selling clothing, is an avowed racist, a certified tax cheat, a bunko artist, golf cheat, sexual predator, serial liar, intellectual light weight, surrounded by advisors who are now convicted felons, what can you expect but the disaster we face and a convention that would run away from truth and reality?
     It was and is a sucker's reality. Anyone surprised?

      a word to Trump supporters

     Cleary there are some who find success in his appointments to the federal bench, all far right conservatives and many without adequate legal experience. Why would an unqualified president worry about unqualified judges, as long as they pass a litmus test, that someone whispered in his ear. 
    Some are pleased by his "tax cut," mostly the upper income levels. Some like that he has stripped and cut regulations, giving some businesses a pass, while allowing more junk into the air, water and land. He's turned government watch dog agencies into patsies for industry and has decimated the State Department and Security and Intelligence Agencies, where experience and expertise used to matter to help keep us and the world safe.
    On balance even those presumed positives do not overcome the damage he has done. How hard should it be to see and hear him warn about a nation where violence in the streets would be the status with Joe Biden, when that violence in the streets is happening on his watch, in his term and in many instances is because he has fanned racism, white supremacy and looks the other way at police killing unarmed Black people. 
    If we had a president up to the job there would have been a more sensitive response to the kind of violence done by cops this year. Remember Obama's battle with the NRA-a money trough for Republicans? If we had a president up to the job, we would have responded to the Covid crisis with a plan and strategy. If we had a president up to the job, we would have better managed the economic impact.
    If Trump kept his word, all of us would be better off economically, more secure, coal miners would be back to work instead of having lost more jobs, there would be more factory jobs, the opioid crisis would have been handled, etc.
    So, the convention that I watched was as phony as the ginned up make believe expertise Trump acted in his television series.

suckers to nuts

     Yes, it is true and sad, that he has supporters, who eat up what he says, who believe he's been a success, and some of his more looney base follow the rabbit hole theory that he is the savior of the world doing battle with pedophiles who worship evil.
      Those folks, and those who defied social distancing, the wearing of masks and safety precautions while abusing the White House are his nation. They are suckers and they part of a sucker's reality and the sad thing, the bad thing, the frightening thing is they don't seem to mind living in a world where you don't need or use a brain.
  

celebrating a raptor 

    Let's stay vigilant and focused. A massive vote turnout is essential. Truth is on our side. Reality, as hard as it may be, is where we live. 

     Stay safe, take care of each other.

     See you down the trail.

Decency and Normalcy

    Fleeting as any generation may be, we live amidst certain constancies. Confrontation, conflict, is as certain as sea and earth. Forces collide.

     The American republic is ground zero for a collision that historians tell us is the most severe test of our existence since 1860, the cusp of the Civil War.

       Last week those who paid attention saw decency, normalcy and were transported to a reality far away from the toxic bedlam of Trump world. 
     The Democratic National Convention, the virtual edition, was effective, loaded with voices, faces, expression of hope, examination of issues and powerful in message. Obama and Biden delivered the best speeches of their careers. Kamala Harris crossed an historic threshold with dignity, force and intellect. The many other speakers were passionate and pointed. Because they were not speaking to a hall full of delegates, they were able to speak more directly, more one on one, to the heart and the mind. 
     As someone who began reporting on presidential politics in the late '60's and a veteran of decades of conventions, I found the virtual presentation to be more intelligent, focused,  and in depth than the circus like exuberance of the old school. Once those conventions served a purposed, but since the 80's they've become staged productions and big parties.
     The Democrats were the first in this modern pandemic to build a structure. We were imbued with family, earnestness, purpose, commitment to equality, a vision of caring, plans for healing and rebuilding, and the normal tradition of America aspiring to greatness and competency.  
      Now the Trump party will take center stage, and those fractures that divide us, and the forces of deception and fraud that threaten us will be in the spot light.

toxic 2020

     The bad year took a turn for the worse this week as the air on California's central coast was listed as the most dangerous in the world. It happened as smoke from fires to the north and south were trapped in a heat wave. Since midweek houses have been closed, outdoor activity was a no-no, and the temperatures set new high records.

    The milky sky was acrid and full of a fine soot and ash that covered houses and cars. Most of us who live on this side of the Santa Lucia Mountains do not have air conditioning. The mountains would normally be seen in this view, but have been obscured by the bad air. 

    A local air quality expert said it is the worst he's seen in his 30 years of measurement.  We take precautions, stay inside and know that soon this will clear, an inconvenience. But we share a concern for our fellow Californians fighting the blazes, evacuating, worrying about their homes, on top of the pandemic. 

tender mercies and gentle victory

   A quick trip to the shore, where the air is at least moving, presented a couple of sights worth sharing. 
   The green patina on this outcropping is visible only during seasons when the low tide exposes it. I took delight in the artistic shading of Providence.

   I marveled at this discovery of clay figures of some composition, set atop rocks on the shore. Someone, with care, added to the tableau of the Pacific shore. A thoughtful and creative kindness.

    And there was the joy of this duo. Notice the bend in one of the rods.

   Look carefully in the frame below and you'll see a trophy of this day of fishing on the rocks. 

   So, even as we journey on in this historic passage, there are moments of the normalcy we seek.
   Stay well, take care of each other.

   See you down the trail.

Surprises and Divides

   August on the California central coast comes with surprises; the Surprise Lily and a rare August rain leaving .2 of an inch.

      From the amaryllis family, the Surprise Lily's are also known as naked ladies. Why, I haven't a clue. And any measurable moisture this time of year is welcomed. 

   The naked ladies are considered a pest by some, but not around our place on the ridge.

coming at us on the horizon

    

      As the US Presidential election draws near it is though our culture has been tossed onto a hot griddle, we are dividing and spreading further apart. It is barely hyperbole to say the vote in 2020 is a kind of civil war.

     We've been divided since the majority of US voters rejected the unfit, unqualified Trump. From the carnage of his inaugural to the very real carnage of economic collapse and his failure to lead during the pandemic it has been first mystifying, and then disheartening to find that his craven, boorish, inept, dishonest and unhinged behavior attracts a cult of supporters.

     Those with any sense of history, knowledge of government, appreciation of the United State's historic role in the world, sense of compassion, decency, concern for the future, worried about climate change, belief in equality, respect for science, truth, the role of a free media, and general civility are appalled not only at Trump but by those who support him. The divide could not be more clear.

      If it were merely political and philosophic differences there would be no movement by traditional Republicans, including every leading strategist, conservative intellectuals, former high level government servants and rank and file to defeat Trump. This is more than politics, this is a thorn in the soul of the republic, this is a rip in the fabric of our constitutional aspirations. Trump is a cancer on American history and his supporters are part of the pathology.

       Historians, social scientists and other scholars will provide the searing analysis of how and why this nation became so unhealthy as to enable the Trump disease. He is by no means the cause, but he is the enabler, the hater, the poster boy for all that is wrong with America. But he is real and so are those so addled as to go to an arena, become part of a super spreader event and then die. 

       Donald Trump is a broken man, suffering mental illness, being irrational, and stupid. Attempts to remove him failed because racist opportunists, and masters of manipulation like Mitch McConnell and Lindsay Graham and their pack of poltroons have taken advantage. And so those once Republicans who sold their soul to become Trumpists have further coddled the very worst of us.

       It is not a coincidence that Trumpists sound and behave like the old confederacy, slave owners, entitled and privileged white men. Sexists, chauvinists, oppressors, and not well educated. 

       We owe the future another repudiation of the confederacy and it's kookie new spawn of those who give allegiance to fabricated and bizarre conspiracy theories, and white supremacy.

for the future

         There will be much to do, to repair, amend, recalibrate, heal and prepare a United States for our heirs. It starts with a vote. We know the aspiring dictator is doing all that he can to destabilize the process and to cast doubts. McConnell has again been an accomplice. 

          Vigilance, diligence, commitment will be required to oversee and protect what must be an overwhelming rejection and repudiation. Done properly it could be the last battle of the Civil War. But understand there will need to be a kind of new Reconstruction, beyond what we can imagine now, to finally address what ever it is that is the beast in the hearts of those you see at a Trump rally. They can and should be vanquished, but they too are human and they will need attending to.

          As for Trump, we can just hope he is litigated to the end.

        Stay safe, stay well. Take care of each other.

        See you down the trail.