REQUIRES A SECOND LOOK

   Reminded me of a Sci-fi thriller. Transformer vs Fish Cloud.

     It was an odd and solitary cloud. Please note-I was not the odd and solitary shopper at the big box parking lot to pause and snap a shot, there were others taking note as well. 

       At first glance we thought it was a stuffed animal put atop the ledge at the Vets Hall on Farmer's market Friday.

        No, he was the real deal and seems to wish I'd get out of the way so he can keep an eye on his companion, busy at the market. 

screwing our veterans

      More than 700 veterans, family members and former employees of a Halliburton subsidiary were kicked in the teeth by a federal judge who dismissed a major lawsuit against the defense contractor over burn pit operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. 

        The Vets alleged the burn pits caused them chronic and deadly respiratory diseases and cancer. 

        Patricia Kime of McClatchy news reports US District Court Judge Roger Titus wrote that the company, KBR, could not be held liable for a military decision. The judge said he didn't have jurisdiction to hold the Pentagon responsible. 

         The suit had tied together cases across the US and included 63 specific complaints and 44 national class action suits.

        KBR operated the burn pits running them near where troops lived and worked. Allegedly KBR burned stuff that should not have been put in the pits; paint, batteries, computers, fuel, plastic, medical waste. 

       Plaintiffs report a range of diseases resulting from exposure, including life threatening conditions, gastrointestinal disorders, neurological issues, cancer and constrictive bronchiolitis. 

       The judge said KBR was just following orders and that it was a military matter.  Victims and family members are furious. 

       It is pretty much par for the course. We put men and women in harms way, sometimes even greater jeopardy because of poor command decisions, and then we leave vets holding the bag. Combine that with the Inspector General's finding of wholesale fraud and waste in both wars-in the Billions, and you are left with corporations that made huge war profits, bonuses for executives and our loyal troops sick and dying and no one is held responsible. 

      It is important to recall that many of these war contracts were no bid deals, engineered by Dick Cheney for his Halliburton and KBR pals.

      It's a damned shame we don't better respect, honor and treat those who serve. It is a continuing stain in our history, but so too is war profiteering. Has been ever such. Another of many reasons war is indeed, hell.
      Maybe the Republican majority in Congress and the Republican president will come to the aid of the distressed vets of Iraq and Afghanistan. What's to stop them?   

     See you down the trail.   

     

A NEW WAY?

    Is there another way to rescue the American government?

Maybe. Some thoughts, rooted in history, follow below.

first, a breath of fresh air

fiscalini ranch preserve-cambria ca. 

nap time

a few of our marine cousins observing rest hour

 the guy below brings us back to the us congress

a third way

    Whether it becomes more than speculative, or a pipe dream, remains to be seen, but we are hearing more about political reform. Could a third party be a method of reform?

      There is no shortage of third parties in our federal elections, but to this point they have been merely symbolic or protest choices. Ralph Nader's campaign helped elect George W. Bush. They've had more impact, historically.

       In 1912 Teddy Roosevelt's Progressive Party, aka the Bull Moose Party, shook up the nation and the Republican party by winning 88 electoral votes and 27% of the popular vote. 

       Racist George Wallace and his American Independent party won 13.5 % of the popular vote and 46 electoral votes in 1968.  

       Reform candidate H. Ross Perot won 18.9% of the popular vote, but no electoral votes in 1992.

minimum appeal

       The Third Party strategy began to play a role and shape parties and policies in the early 1800's. The list includes:

• Anti Masonic
• Free Soil
• Whig Americans
• Southern Democrats
• Constitutional Union
• Populist

      Today's list includes:

• Libertarian
• Green Party
• America's Party
• Constitution Party
• Solidarity Party
• Citizens Party
• Modern Whig Party
• Reform Party
• Unity Party
• Veterans Party 
• United States Pirate Party
• Communist Party
• Socialist Party
• Party for Socialism and Liberation
• Peace and Freedom Party
• Justice Party
• Socialist Workers Party
• Workers World Party
• Working Families Party
• Black Riders Liberation Party
• New Afrikan Black Panther Party
• Human Party
• Legal Marijuana Now Party
• Objectivist Party
• Prohibitionist party

  and believe it or not, there are more.  Clearly these parties cater to specific positions, splinter groups and attitudes-they are not mainstream.  

    So as observers ranging from party professionals, academics, analysts and voters look upon the failure and disgrace of the trump White House, the collapse of the Republican Party's ability to govern and the Democrats inability to keep their act together, there is growing talk about a new way.

maximum appeal

a platform for all

     I wonder if a kind of grass roots movement, pragmatic in nature, focused on mass appeal objectives only and deliberately geared to be anti polarizing, might not shake things up?   

•      Conservatives and liberals might agree with the idea that members of the federal government, especially the house and senate, must offer all Americans the same insurance and health care benefits they have, or theirs are revoked. 
•      Same for the practice of special "friends and family" insider investment information and opportunities. 
•      The salary and benefits of Senate and House membership would be trimmed to match the median wage of American workers. They would no longer vote for their own raises, instead they would be tied to COLA standards. 
•  PACs and Leadership Funds would be forbidden. Money could not be used personally or kept after leaving office. 
•      Once a member of the Senate or the House leaves office they would be forbidden from working for a consultancy or in a lobbying effort for as many years as they served. The exception is they could accept a position in a presidential administration or department. 

   There are probably other common core values that would appeal across party and ideological lines. 
    If the very definition and nature of the job and its benefits were changed we would find a different quality person willing to "serve."

    By backing out the influence of private wealth and organizational funding we could see a change in the character of the Congress and amongst seekers of public office. 

    I'd like to see restrictions on campaign funding-eliminating the legal influence of special interests of every stripe especially including those President Eisenhower warned us about-the military industrial complex that now controls and benefits from the federal dollar. 

excising the rot

    Donald Trump is the poster boy for a failure of government and the caving of American values.  He is the worst of America and millions of us, in fact the majority of Americans wonder why the hell he was not, or has not been stopped or removed from office. He's not the cause of the rot in our federal election system and inefficiency in government, but he is the face of the cancer and toxic in his own way. 

    Electoral politics is now an industry.  Government is now a business. It is time for a fundamental change and realignment or we are doomed to become a Greece, or Italy, if we survive the antics of the jack ass who is president. 

    A well organized and structured third party-or middle way effort that can unite D's, R's, Liberals, Conservatives, and appeals to all demographic subgroups could change the way the game is played and the power is brokered. 
    There will always be ideological and philosophical differences, but if the idea is about governance and not the aggregation of power or politics by bludgeoning, we could witness our government work the way it was imagined and created by the founders-give and take-compromise-governing for all.

    A fanciful though perhaps, but there have been "inflection" moments in our history and this is certainly one.  Wouldn't you hate to see it stay the same or get worse. It is action time. 

    See you down the trail.

    

EQUALITY

     Those who think equality is essential might take a lesson from spiders. They spare no corner of opportunity. Despite adversity they persist.

caged by identity

       He was always alone, off to the side. I figured he was shy. I was not so much shy as reserved, content to watch and study, learning who was who and what was what. It was an integrated elementary school and we studied and played together, but he seemed somehow adrift. Let's call him Mark.

      The term in those days was "mulatto." He was light skinned though a bit darker than white kids and had an unusual kind of freckling. I liked him. He was athletic, neat, had good manners and was the kind of kid my parents said I should associate with. But on the playground he stood back and, as I began to observe, he was shunned by some of the black kids who knew him and by a couple of the more boisterous white boys. 

      Mark lived on the other side of the park and though it was nothing we thought much about, it was the boundary between black families and white families. Mark lived black. I lived white, but we were a lot alike and a natural friendship developed. Mark came to my house, though I was never invited to his. He didn't like to talk about his mixed race parents or the struggles he faced. We just did the kind things a couple of athletic and active young guys did. We were friends. 

       In a couple of years we were in separate classes and a year after that my family moved to another city.

      His older brother became a noted educator and administrator courted by universities for executive positions. He was an advocate for equality, across the board. He had  been an outstanding student and athlete and not shy nor deterred by his birthright. That is as it should be. 

      I don't know what became of Mark, but I thought about him as I read about an incident in a nearby California town.

      The police department is being sued over claims of racial bias. A black man who's family had been to the beach was on the way home when he stopped in front of the police department to stretch his legs and smoke a cigarette. He figured the police department would be a safe spot. He says as he got out of the car he was "accosted" by a policewoman who said he looked "suspicious." The officer asked his white wife "why she was there and if she was OK?" The couples two children observed this. You get the idea. 

       There have been victories in the struggle for human dignity and equality but the war is nowhere near being won. While unenlightened attitudes persist so do efforts to carry the light and build webs of understanding, regulation, law and  political culture to deliver on the promise of our democratic republic. Here, every birthright is guaranteed equality, regardless. No cage of identity. Or we are collectively a fraud and a failure. There is work to do.

a champion napper

 Hemingway is a cat after Garfield's heart! 

scout's honor
On my honor I will do my best
to do my duty to God and my country
and to obey the Scout Law;
To help other people at all times:
To keep myself physically strong,
mentally awake, and morally straight.

Physically strong, mentally awake, morally straight?

sexual predator, serial adulterer, habitual liar 
business cheat, slob?

Sad!
"Fake leader"
Failed man

     The Scouts apology for the travesty of the jamboree helped clear the air, but only slightly. 

      See you down the trail.

       

TOUGHER THAN TRUMP

Echoes of a frontier-Eastern Slope of the Sierra

   I wonder how many of us are as tough as our ancestors.

   Seeing a shell of a cabin in the windswept high valley of the Sierra I marvel at the men and women who cut lonely lives in hostile and isolated environments. They were made of tough stuff.

   So was the WWII "greatest generation," especially the Brits. Their survival of the German blitz-the bombing campaign against London is heroic. There's an epic new film that adds another chapter to that kind of tough-Dunkirk.

    When up to 400 thousand British and French Soldiers were cut off, pinned down by Germans along the French shore across the channel from Dover, a hellish slaughter was imminent. The best the Churchill government could plan was to evacuate some 30 thousand. That was until British citizens created the most unlikely armada in history and evacuated more than 300 thousand troops.

    Director Christopher Nolan has created an ingenious, multifaceted way to recount one of the 20th Centuries towering achievements. Dialogue is sparse-but the acting is brilliant. Kenneth Branagh, Mark Rylance, Tom Hardy and Harry Styles imprint this heroic story deeply in your mind.

    There it is, in large format, the kind of history we need to know. When I heard the words of Churchill, famous words now, I could not escape a comparison to Donald Trump.

leadership and character

   Thank God we were led by men of character, stature, intelligence and courage, qualities that do not exist in the barely literate megalomaniac who angry and disturbed people put into office, against the majority. 

     Character counts and that is proven by history. We can hope Providence protects us from an epic occurrence as long as trump remains in office.

    He is not tough. He is a bully instead and he continues to betray his appalling ignorance. Recently he accused the New York Times of interfering with pursuit of a terrorist. He was summarily body slammed by the facts, again. 

    Generations of ancestors have proven they are tougher than challenges that descend upon them, or enslave them, or deny them, or cheat them, or seek to destroy them. Our generation faces the accidental challenge and assault from our own president. 
     John McCain's illness is tragic. He is a genuine hero and I hope someone pushes trump to offer an apology. That a blogger even need write such a thought, bespeaks how far this leader is from being worthy to be called a commander.
    We are tougher and smarter. America is greater and bigger than the trump aberration. 

     It is not unlike the German bombers that struck London, or tried to kill lines of troops on the sands at Dunkirk, they did not prevail. Many of them went down in flames, just as this White House is in the midst of doing. 

at bay

out on a limb

more tough

    Can't help but marvel at the mental toughness of Jordan Spieth. The newly crowned and young British Open Champion overcame his own bad game and control. He was almost out of it when his steel became apparent and he prevailed to claim his first British title. Cheers!

     See you down the trail.

PERPETUITY and AN INNER MEASURE

Sequoia National Park

      Being in the presence of an ancient can do a lot to widen your view. Beholding a 2-3 thousand year old tree puts a perspective on human endeavors and foibles.

 Audubon Society Sweet Springs Nature Preserve Los Osos Ca.

    Even a less august eucalyptus grove displays endurance,  the contortions, changes and adjustments demanded of life. 

     Are humans any less subject?

 Sweet Springs Preserve

    And we are grateful for green spaces, preserves, national and state parks where that which is older is paid respect. And where we can rest, focus and gain clarity.

    Do you think we'd see a different behavior if House and Senate members did a nature centered retreat-a kind of outward bound recess? I like to think that a thread of decency would appear even in the contemptible Mitch McConnell.

    He's even more of a "gloomy Gus" these days, a weakened and failed leader who has presided over a colossal failure and collapse of majority politics. 

    It is good for all of us the mean spirited and punitive Republican Health Care plan seems to be dying. Surprising that a party that controls everything-White House, Senate, House and that has been shrilly condemning the Affordable Health Care Act for 6 years, can't govern, can't legislate and has no vision for America and can't do what they said they would do "on day 1." It is a disastrous administration and nations see us as weaker and unreliable.

    So maybe a couple of weeks of hiking and camping in Yosemite, or the Bridger Teton Wilderness or in Denali could do our Senators and Representatives a world of good, and us too.

    I wish we could get our bloated, sexual predator and lying tweeter in chief into the wilds. Oh boy, could you imagine? But that would probably result in a blown body part and would sadly end the camp out.

    Being in nature however clarifies an undeniable truth. Behind our politics, regardless of stripe or affiliation is an assumption about the power of human life and its durability. We move through our days owning an attitude of perpetuity. It ain't so!

    We are merely passing through. The best we can hope for is 7-9 decades. We are all amazed at how quickly it passes. 

    So why do we behave the way we do? We damage, scar, despoil, deplete our planet. And we brutalize, terrorize, destroy and kill, including each other. And for what ends?

     The health care plan is a case in point. Since all of us, even the most healthy, have limited days how can we be punitive or restrictive? 

      Providing health care to everyone is right. Arguing "there have always been the poor," or the fact that some can't afford coverage is "just the price of modern life" or "the way it is," is wrong.  Politics that enshrine those attitudes are mean and venal.

     Health care should not be a political doctrine, it is a matter of health, and if it is not a right, then it is our responsibility to each other. There is also the deep and complicated topic of the role of "profit" in the practice of health and healing. 

     I am one of those who believe our higher aspirations and greater good is to be just and merciful. Any thing else is delusional bull shit, the sort of which that leads humanity to our inhumane treatment of each other and our only planet.

     See you down the trail. 

    

    

    

Did the Hunt Find a Witch? and Dramas in Twilight

     A few moments of gloaming evoked a sort of pensive tranquility. In looking at these frames I thought of impressionism as the quality of light and color seemed in motion, changing rapidly.
      Speaking of which, do you think we are entering the twilight of the trump regime?  Thoughts on colluding and conspiracy follow this visual therapy.  

 the light of the foreground trailing off into the distance-with the hot spot of a moon rise

the lace and feather like quality of forest against a painted sky 

very soft shadows decorate a mission, white and calm

the moon and the tapering shapes have an almost Flemish oil feel

the battle of portraits

   Reading artist/writer Stephen Hayes recent Chubby Chatterbox blog post about the fate of a portrait of Winston Churchill reminded me of an amusing juxtaposition in the halls of the State Capitol in Sacramento.

 

   

     The Reagan portrait, like those of the other Governors is traditional and stately. Governor Jerry Brown's is modern and creative but apparently controversial at the time it was hung in 1984. 

     Brown, who served his first two terms from 1975-1983 reportedly said the painting looked "unfinished" and that it reflected his "unfinished work" as Governor.

     Artist Don Bachardy said Brown was a tough subject, uneasy at being painted, not content to sit as the artist worked. 
     Unkind things were written and said of Bachardy's work in the early '80's. Frankly I think it has become a classic in it's own right. Modern, perhaps even a little pop, out of the mainstream which very much bespeaks the remarkable political career and service of Jerry Brown.  

     Does a repeat Governor get a second portrait opportunity? Brown looks different than he did in the 1980's, don't we all?

the conviction of colluding "junior"

    Shall we dispatch with the judicial process now that televisions comics and pundits have convicted Donald Trump Jr. of collusion and conspiracy. Man have they ever! Almost expect to seem him marched to the guillotine as the old man celebrates the French Revolution and the storming of the Bastille, the beginning of what became the "reign of terror " that included cutting off the heads of the likes of the "one percenters." The trump clan more than likely would have felt the "the national razor." But we get ahead of ourselves.

     Has the so called fake news and "witch hunt" found a witch? The news is no longer fake.  From the beginning I was not sure there would be provable "collusion" with the Russian attack. The Don Jr. e-mails may change that . There in fact may be a "there" there in the probe of the Russian meddling in our election. 

     We trust the Mueller team will plumb how deep and how extensive was the Russian attack. 

     Juniors acknowledgment and "love" of the information being supplied by Russian sources, likely Russian agents, raised an historic question--

what did the president know and when did he know it?

    Doesn't it strain credibility to think that when his son and his son in law, plus others, knew about the Russian attack and met with (colluded?) foreign nationals to screw with the American election, he-king trump of the tower, didn't know about it? One of the meetings happened in his gold and glass tribute to poor taste. 

      We remember the function in this is to let investigators, prosecutors and the judicial system "prove" or not, and render a decision. What you and I think, and what the TV says doesn't really matter, except to us. However when the word treason is being used, it seems appropriate. 

a republican response would be nice, 
about now!

      Republican Joe Scarborough said it well. It is disgusting how republicans are selling out the party's core values. He asks what many Americans have-why haven't party leaders spoken out against trump's racist remarks, boorish behavior, his turning the white house into an extension of his family business? I wonder why they haven't demanded a cogent and consistent foreign policy? Why haven't they filled critical positions in the government? Scarborough asks "what are they willing to do, how far are they willing to go" in backing trump for their own means?

the big question

      Why would the party, known for its strong national security, defense support and hawkish policies, not be "ballistic," at least "operational," in response to the Russian attack? Imagine what President Eisenhower, Reagan, HW Bush and even W would say and do?

      At best Republicans have been tepid in their response! 

Now the president's son and his trusted ace advisor/son-in- law are caught with their hands in living Matryoshka dolls, why isn't there a loud condemnation? Or at least an admonishment that to cooperate with a foreign national to undermine our government is treason?

      Instead Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell are trying to revive a dead skunk so they can give the trumps and the other richest of the rich a tax break while breaking our already fragile health care network and jeopardizing the well being of millions of not so rich citizens. 

      For the sake of the party and its self respect, and for the sake of the future, those Republicans with a sense of honor and patriotism need to drive a wedge between the trump regime and the party. Time to say enough is enough. If not then the Republican party will be owned by trump. He is probably already gold gilding the elephant and replacing GOP and Republican with another trump sign.  
      If we are lucky we'll see some of the trumps wearing orange jump suits and doing a perp walk. 

       See you down the trail.

       

THE FALL- THE SNEAKY THREAT-THE NEW PARTY SPOT

      North of Cambria, early July

    The president's foreign trip underscores a universal acknowledgment, the leader of the US is no longer the most powerful nor is he the "leader of the free world" as we used to say.

    International leaders are joined in chorus by analysts and writers from the right and left-America's role has been diminished by Trump. They agree Vladimir Putin has more moxie, finesse and muscle than the American president. Other leaders are assuming the moral and ethical leadership role, previously played by the American President.

     If Trump has a cogent policy, it has not been articulated. What the world hears is "America first," warnings about enemies, the freakish, petulant, embarrassing behavior and a serious lack of grasp. At least he can read a teleprompter. 
      We take a deeper dive, later.

not speaking?

    I can't help but chuckle at this. The body language and pose is hilarious. 

    In fact Lana and our pal Grif are looking for other friends, but the symmetry of the snap is amusing.

    A delightful reality that struck us some 10 years ago on our migration to Cambria is it's similarity to a big Arts School. 

    Cambria loves music. It's an art colony and home to musicians, writers, guild and craft artists from Hollywood and television, bohemians of several generations, free thinkers and free spirits. Of course there are others too, master gardeners, dog lovers, cat lovers, nature lovers, hikers, surfers and people of every conceivable political stripe and attitude. We have our one percenters too, but not nearly in the concentration you find further north, or south. There is a large cross ideological percentage who love music and hanging out.

    We've watched this joyful past-time and we followed its change of venues. The Painted Sky recording story in its evolving locales. The departed Wise Owl was a guaranteed good evening. Now popular singer/songwriter Jill Knight has organized for a new venue-Centrally Grown, formerly the Hamlet. 
     In the scene above Jill is joined by the accomplished Eric Williams and Billy Foppiano. 

    She will perform and so will others from the deep bench of Central California talent. The constant party has a new location and we boomers remain in our suspended state of a big high school crowd waiting for the next party.

   A wood fired pizza, glass of wine or beer, great music, friends and a lovely California evening has to be high on the list of "as good as it gets."

and there is much to recover from

   I've been reading the conversation among Republican, Libertarian and Conservative friends who have tolerated my pragmatism and political agnosticism for years. They are not trump supporters. They certainly are not liberals, Democrats, or anything other than what we consider traditional moderate to right center Republicans. 

   I agree with their notion the trump vote commission is wrong. It is federal overreach, dangerous, sinister and anti American.

    It is a nefarious attempt to gather and collect data the Federal government has no need of, nor right to expect. To turn it over would pose the risk of likely abuse and manipulation by the trumpist/extreme right wing cabal or others. There could be no guarantee the data would be safe, anywhere. We can't forget this administration had to be shoved into acknowledging the Russian cyber attack on America.

    (Getting to the bottom of that attack and determining if there was participation on the part of US citizens is a national priority.) 
    The states that have flashed the bird at the trump election commission requests are to be applauded. 

     Another nagging thought. Mike Pence is quietly working to build his donor base. While his boss is watching a big screen television and tweeting, the VP has been hustling money and preparing for a post trump world. This very guy whose Indiana Republican party was ready to depose because of his nefarious right wing schemes and embarrassments to the state, would have access to, if not control of, the private voter data the trump commission has been asking for. That should also give you the willies.
     
     See you down the trail.