Citizens Speak

       On a dark December night, people brought the light.
     In our village tucked between the Pacific and the Santa Lucia mountains citizens joined others from Times Square to LA, at State Capitols, City Buildings, Court Houses, Federal Buildings, in dusky twilight and even in subfreezing ice and snow. From all corners of this nation, all kinds of people spoke the same words. No one is above the law. Impeach!

    The US is a democratic republic. It is made strong by participation.

     Marchers in a village are meager compared to throngs in  sprawling cities, but the message is the same, and so is the spirit. 

   It is comforting to know that US citizens in the height of a festive season of parties and busyness care enough to go out at night, leave the comfort of their couch, or party and speak their minds. To my mind, speak truth to a corrupt power.

   It is a rare moment in American history. On the eve of the impeachment vote a group of Republican strategists announced formation of the Lincoln Project and effort to take control of the Republican Party and turn it from the depraved Trumpist cult. Here's what one of the founding members, Rick Wilson said

...all of us give a damn about this country in a way that Trumpism denies and Trumpism is not about the the sacred nature of the American experience and about the propositional nature of this country. it is a cult dedicated to a madman who is displaying it today and tonight That he’s an unhinged maniac but he is lavishly corrupt and will do anything to defend himself and we happen to believe that the country is more valuable than a temporary moment, a blip in the politics of this country.”

      An unhinged madman indeed! I harken back to that August 2016 letter signed by 55 Republicans who worked at the highest levels for Republican Presidents; they warned us Trump was unfit and lacked the character to lead and said he would be a danger to national security. 
    I can only hope the Lincoln Project may have influence on Republicans in the Senate. If they do not listen to their parties elders, they will be forever smeared with fetid Trump taint.
    As one of our chants this evening said  IT IS THE SEASON TO END THE TREASON.

    See you down the trail.

Are We Capable?

precarious times

     I've been replaying the moment I stood next to a USGS scientist staring down into the caldera of the most active volcano in history when the earth shook and a jet engine sound rattled our ears as a noxious cloud of black sulfur gas enveloped us. The gas piston tremor created a strong earth quake. Mother Earth was not terra firma. In that moment I realized this planet of ours is alive, still forming, unpredictable, eruptive and that our human certainties are not so certain and there are forces more powerful at work.

    Our ordered, legally defined and constitutional way of public life is being shaken now and assaulted by forces including a noxious self inflicted ignorance.

     The people's House impeaches the US President, Britain votes again as Brexit undermines stability, Iranians die as they protest a regime, Hong Kong unravels, allies make joke and laugh at president Trump, dictators and strongmen are  on the rise, nationalism once again creeps virus like back onto the world stage and meanness trumps cooperation time and time again.

impeachment is hard

     It is the right thing to impeach Donald Trump. There are many more reasons he should be removed, but the case against him as outlined in the hearings is undeniable. He abused power, he misused the office, he has obstructed justice and the constitutional process. 

    Those who say it is only politics are wrong. Impeachment is about now and the future. 

    If Trump is not impeached, it sends a destructive memo to all future Presidents. Those who say it undoes the will of the people seem to miss that is exactly what Trump did when he attempted to withhold funds that were approved by the congress, representing the people's will.

    The founders wrote in the impeachment process because they wanted future generations to have the power to protect our system by removing a despot, would be dictator, criminal or crackpot. If this president is not impeached it is a signal that his abuses, his invitation to foreign powers to meddle in our elections by money or subversion, or manipulation, could be repeated by future presidents.

    He is not being impeached because he lies dozens of times every day. He is not being impeached because he has and continues to act like a traitor. He is not being impeached because he advances Putin's agenda on the world stage and behaves as though he is the Russian's stooge. He is not being impeached because he has tried to dismantle the State Department, or denigrated our federal law enforcement, or undermines our intelligence agencies, or demeans the federal judiciary, or because he is trying to make money for his family business while president. He is not being impeached because he meets privately with a Russian spymaster and gives away secrets. He's not being impeached because he betrayed allies and allowed their slaughter. He's not being impeached because he pulled out of the Paris Climate Accord. He's not being impeached because most of his campaign staff are now in prison as federal prisoners. 

    Instead he is being impeached because he is a clear and present danger to our way of government, our constitutional system, and because he seeks to overthrow the balance of power between three separate branches of government. He is being impeached because he is not above the law.

an age of ignorance

    That it is unlikely he will be convicted in a Senate trial does indeed speak to how his cultish influence has destroyed a once proud Republican party. It speaks volumes about the cowardice and self interest so evident in most Republicans on the Hill. But it speaks more loudly about how ignorant we have allowed ourselves to become.

    I've written here about my concern about our failure to teach civics, government and the lessons of US history. We are living at the junction of that failure and the rise of a defiant ignorance fed by bias, manipulation and brainwashing.

    Several recent studies have reported that a decline in newspaper readership leads to more corruption, greater polarization and a decline in voting. We are there. 

    So much talk is about "motivating the base." Isn't that a variation of a kind of mob rule? Where is there intelligent discussion or civil debate? We've devolved and we've done it to ourselves as we fail to teach, and then feed the worst instincts by tribalized and echo chamber news channels. One of them, the one founded by a sexual predator, spends most of the day engaged in Russian disinformation, brainwashing and Trump worship.

    Even at that, millions get their "news" and opinion shaping info from social media platforms infected with manipulation and persuasion programs, run by all number of nefarious players, including foreign and hostile powers.

    When you see Jim Jordan, Devin Nunes, John Kennedy, Lindsey Graham and company actually speaking Russian disinformation your head wants to explode. Reagan, HW Bush, Eisenhower and Nixon must be spinning.  

    I guess there is a reason he's called Moscow Mitch. When you compare what the Republican Party used to stand for on the Soviet Union, national security and intelligence and you hear the words and see the actions of Trump and his synchophants, it should be clearly obvious why impeachment is important to our survival. Giuliani is off trying to trump up more fabricated dirt, even as this president is being impeached. If they are not stopped, where in the world will they take us and what will they try to do?

    43% of self identified Trump Republicans believe he is right to ignore the Constitution and obstruct Congress. Folks, that's the kind of blind loyalty the world saw in Germany in the late 30's. It's in the history books.

     If we did a better job of teaching history, if our graduates knew the difference between a Governor and a US Senator, or could identify the three branches of government, Nunes would be looking for a job, Jim Jordan would still be hanging out in the locker room watching his fellow coach masturbate in the shower with his wrestling team, and Trump would still be calling New York radio stations posing as John Miller to talk about how sexually active "his boss Donald Trump is."

Bill Barr would be selling tupperware and Moscow Mitch would spend all day on the liars bench drinking from a brown paper sack. 

    An educated and informed electorate has a way to deal with hustlers, idiots and liars. We are not a well informed electorate and there is more blind faith than due diligence and more opinions than facts. The ground is shaking, and a loud noxious presence is apparent. The certainties are not.

why build a statue of trump and mitch and company

       With apology to those who are deserving statesmen and women and genuine heroes. Still, even for them, nature is what it is. And me thinks nature would love a chance to speak to the trump gang.

        Back to the Irish trail, soon. Thanks for indulging another historic US moment.

         See you down the trail.

    

Belfast-It is Daedalian

    There is a shiny edge to the bewildering and convoluted city that is Belfast.

     The impressive Titanic Museum reminds the world this was a leading ship building city, the apex of an industrial  power. Linen, tobacco, and rope making started a march to industrialization that now involves aerospace, missiles, and filmmaking. 

     The history is told masterfully in the marvel that tells the story of the building of the Titanic and its fate.
      The Titanic and the HBO super hit Game of Thrones are a minor industry unto themselves in Belfast. Thrones was filmed across Northern Ireland and the studio is near the Titanic Museum and Hotel.

    The room where the blue prints of the Tiatic were drawn is now a restaurant and bar with extraordinary natural lighting.

    Belfast remains a city of culture and industry even though the famous and employment providing Harland and Wolff shipyard is facing uncertainty.

    Belfast has a population between 300 and 400 thousand though it has the vibe of a larger city.

    The source of the major Belfast storyline dates to the 1922 partition of Ireland. Belfast is part of the UK in  Northern Ireland. That it and the Irish Republic adjoin is the nexus for what has been a history of Trouble.

   The Parliament of Northern Ireland meets at Stormont in Belfast, though it has not met since 2017 and is presently in suspension because of the inability to agree. It is a symbolic image of the division that rends Northern Ireland.

  Principally, because of what is euphemistically called "The Troubles," Belfast remains divided. 
   There are walls and cages for separation and protection in areas where Catholics and Protestants adjoin, or in neighborhoods where those who favor British rule and those who want to be independent or part of the Irish Republic reside closely. 

   There are neighborhoods where the two sides are separated by gates that close at night, blocking access. 

   Violence from the Troubles once gave Belfast the reputation as one of the most dangerous cities in the world.

   It is better now, but bitterness and hostility lurk.

    For years politics, emotion and legacy tributes have been painted on walls. They are an index to the struggles, memories of those who perished, either by hunger strike or by violence.

  Belfast is a city of martyrs on walls. 

   The walls provide a narrative. 

    To get a feel for these areas, we hired a Black Taxi tour. 50 years ago former political prisoners began driving the taxis. It was a way to both earn a living and to proclaim by visiting  friction spots, or places where freedom fighters died or places of military action. 

   On this day in Belfast we hired one of the original drivers, now an old boy, a former prisoner, and with a keen sense of these neighborhoods. 

    I thought it oddly ironic his aged cab needed a pause for repair at the very Clonard Abbey where the Good Friday Peace Agreement was achieved. (By the way he knew exactly what to do and where to pound.)

     The phrase The Troubles is an anemic expression of what happened to Belfast and Northern Ireland. It was cultural and political war and a fight for self determination that cast shadows even now.

   Divis Tower in the Falls neighborhood remains locked in that history. The British Army set up tower surveillance and sniper positions here.

    Today the children of a woman who "disappeared" from here in 1972 wonder what happened to her. She was then a young widow with 10 children when taken. Her  murder is still a matter of inquiry and investigation. It is featured in the non-fiction Say Nothing-A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland written by Patrick Radden Keefe and published this year. 

    By 2019 some of the street painting politics reach into even US and international scenarios. Note the red x over a face in the above tribute to liberators and rights activists. Aung san Suu Kyi, the Burmese Nobel Peace laureate has fallen out of favor. 

   Throughout Belfast are memorials to those who perished in the Troubles. 

    The fallen of both sides are remembered, daily.

    Sinn Fein remains in place and active and too has suffered loss.

    It was in the room behind the fourth window on the ground floor where the Good Friday Agreement was reached on April 10 1998. It ended 30 years of active violence, military presence, bombing, riots and discord. It birthed an uneasy truce and with a long history as preamble.  

    The Women's Voices Matter movement is an island of words of hope and inspiration.

     And the "Peace Wall" stands. While it is an open expression of peace, it is none-the-less still a wall between neighborhoods, like those barriers above the roofs.

   Thousands from around the globe have been here to sign on for peace.

    I have neither the expertise nor skill to write an explanation for what has played out on the streets and homes of Belfast. 
    It is a history all should know. It is readily available.

    Between 80 and 90 thousand cars pass the Sculpture RISE that went up in 2011. 

    
     Today as you drive from Ireland into Northern Ireland the road signs change from kilometers to miles and the words change from Gaelic and English to only English. License plates are different and that is how you know you are at or through the soft border. Brexit however, as ill conceived and foolish as it is, and as mishandled as it has been, threatens perhaps to raise up old animosities, stir ghosts, reanimate divide and hostility.
     Good Friday has produced a kind of cooling and a reach for normalcy, but trouble has not disappeared.
    It is indeed very complicated.

      On the agenda, the lively, vivacious and friendly city of Dublin.

     See you down the trail.