America Enduring

      When respected historians tell us our political drama is without precedent we understand we face uncertainty.The last 4 years tells us we face challenges, difficult challenges. 

    One of the most used adjectives of our era is existential, often paired with threat. The days ahead will test resolve, will, and our belief in the constitutionally coded aspirations of our democratic republic.

fault line warnings

    It foreshadows what may come when a headline reads the "President maintained control" in a debate. Simply making a nod to being to being civil obfuscates there was nothing new, just more of the same old boasts, self worship, lies, of course lies, and bogus allegations coming out of a foreign intelligence playbook to divide us and to sew doubts. But much was made of the style. Again appearance trumps substance. It repeats a pattern of the last four years; diversion, something else to talk about, a new bright shiny object.

     Joe Biden is a known commodity. An old fashioned centrist to liberal Democrat who knows how government and foreign policy works. Donald Trump is a clinical narcissist with a history of fraud, racism, personal scandal, sexual abuse and failure after failure with the exception of a reality television show. This has been obvious to the world. 

      Still, the nation is divided over these men and what they represent about human dignity, liberty, science and health. A choice will be made, a leader chosen and we will find a way to live with the consequence.

      This writer has a preferred hope for the future.

   The ideas from both ends of Pennsylvania Ave will soothe the troubled soul of the Republic, once Trump is removed, deposed by the majority will and this is no small point. 

    It is a season of change and US citizens are exercising their franchise at an historic early pace. The will of the majority is an

   awesome and powerful force, the rock solid granite mountain of our constitution. 

    Since the founding, the US has done a slow walk toward greater emancipation for all souls. As bright as the originators were, they were captive of their age that approved slavery, saw women as not fully vested citizens, Blacks as property and even then with a worth only 3/5 of a white man.

    Still, they provided for majority rule, gave us the structure of a government of law, provided for flexibility in the constitution, laid the path for law making, and established three branches of government to be a check and balance on each other. The American story has been the expansion of liberty, human dignity and the sacredness of the vote, giving the power to the citizen. We voters hire and fire our political representatives.

gaming the system    

    Only 5 times in US history have those who won the majority of the vote been denied the Presidency and two of those have been in the last 20 years. Al Gore was more popular than George W. Bush and Hillary Clinton more popular than Donald Trump.

     Not only was the will of the majority cheated but a deep cancer was set upon the American nation. The majority of the sitting US Supreme Court Justices were appointed by Presidents who were rejected by the majority of American citizens. Let that sink in.

    The Republican party's lies and duplicity, going back to the denial of an appointment to President Obama and the rush job to put an anti abortion Coney-Barrett on the court is the icon symbol for how the court is being steered further away from the wishes and will of most Americans. That reality threatens fairness, justice and could erode confidence in the Supreme Court itself. Enemies of the US must be delighted by this.

      The Electoral College, the allotment of the US Senate, and the Republican packing of the Judiciary undermines the fundamental need for majority rule. The vote of each citizen, the expression of their wishes, is foundational to the legitimacy of the government. It makes no difference where they live. 

    As it is now and unless efforts are made to change it, we are on a path where the majority of Americans can be under represented, while a minority, gaming the system, can be over represented. 

    In the days ahead we need to be vigilant about vote integrity, access and calculation. And we need to be diligent about gaming the antiquated and now dangerous electoral college system again.

    

the trump believers    

    Trump's ineptitude and unfitness has delivered nothing but failure and decline with a couple of exceptions, based on your perspective. 

    The Federalist Society and Mitch McConnell used him to fill the federal judiciary with conservatives, at best, to right wing zealots and many lacking what had been previously required experience. They've done so in an effort to undo the Affordable Care act, upend Roe V. Wade and to drive the judiciary into a direction that is on a different page than the majority of Americans and even more distant from the attitudes of millions more in upcoming generations. That is dangerous. 

    The Trump republican party did a favor for their wealthiest supporters, by giving them another tax cut, and by bailing out banks and corporations while being miserly on the Covid relief aid given to working citizens and small businesses. The House passed a wide ranging help to cities, states and working people months ago, but the Trump administration and his senate republicans are so dysfunctional they can't agree amongst themselves and they've delayed vital aid.

    To his credit the administration was able to extend a peace framework for Israel and a couple of small Arab nations. 

But his foreign policy failures overshadow that. 

    He's been played by North Korea, he's hurt US farmers with his failed China trade policies, he's been a laughing stock amongst old allies, he's tried to weaken alliances, he's allowed Iran to advance work on a bomb, he's been a regressive on the Climate Accords, so that corporations, cities and states have gone around him. He's tried to destroy the EPA, the Department of State, and he is vilified by the intelligence community and the Pentagon, both of whom he has tried to undermine. Most of all he has been a stooge for Russia's Putin. Some of his behavior could be traitorous. On at least 10 occasions he tried to obstruct justice. He's continued to run business enterprises enriching his own bank account. He's told more than 20 thousand lies, has failed to keep campaign pledges to build a wall, re open coal mines, bring back manufacturing, repair the infrastructure or drain the swamp. He set a record for the number of people in his administration who have been convicted of crimes. He faces a slew of potential criminal charges himself, and so does his family members who have violated nepotism principles. He is responsible for thousands of deaths from Covid because of failed leadership. He's continued to flaunt safety guidelines and has been responsible for super spreader events. And there is more, but still he has supporters. How is that possible? Who with a working brain can find any reason to support him? 

    Biden's accomplishments fills volumes, but perhaps the most important thing in his resume is his humanity, humility, empathy, and the enduring respect that he gets from Republicans, Democrats, military leaders, foreign policy and  health care experts. On every scale, Biden is a better person, and a better choice. But millions will vote for Trump!

 what to do about the divide

   Of course the best outcome is a landslide win for Biden-Harris, a change of Senate Majority, and Trump's peaceful departure from office. If we are so lucky that still leaves the people who voted for Trump. Biden will reach out to them and will try to show that we are one nation. 

    But when 25% of the US believe the ludicrous Q Anon goofiness, we've got problems. When armed militia knuckleheads storm statehouses or plan kidnappings and prepare for a war, we've got problems. When you simply look at the vehemence or listen to Trump supporters, you know you don't want to live next door to them and we've got problems.

When they believe anything Trump says, we've got problems.

They are not going away, and as simplistic, poorly informed, fabulist, or just stupid as their reasons are, they are entitled to them.

    The challenge is to find a way back to a standard of government that is honest, open and unifying. A more civil public discourse. Less frantic madness from the White House.

     Seeing Trump crushed, and then legally pursued, clearing the senate of the Trumpistas and enablers, may be enough of a reality check that some of the Trump nation will put down the kool aid and rejoin reality. 

    This is not China so we won't build reeducation camps, this is not North Korea so we will not kill or imprison them, this is not Russia so we will not poison them. But we do need to find a way to live with them. 

    We also need to change a lot of things. Trump is a poster boy for a nation that has failed to teach civics and history and personal responsibility as citizens. He is poster boy for a nation that celebrates celebrity and would rather engage in consumerism than thought. He is a poster boy for a nation where people will defy science and their own best interest by refusing to wear a mask or to socially distance in the middle of the most deadly pandemic of a lifetime. 

changes to make

    There is need for more care and concern for others. We need to find a way to teach critical reasoning, certainly to all upcoming children, but even to adults. We need to find a way to teach media literacy.

    People should be able to recognize propaganda when they see it. Folks should be smart enough to call a bull shit artist for who they are whatever their name, channel, or political office. We need to find a way where religion is not a rallying cry for division or political vengeance, judgementalism and pain, but a force for serving, uplift, compassion and caring. We need to find a way to publicly fund elections, eliminating the big money, and ending the election industry, and the idea that government is a business. 

    None of this will be easy. But the US has been broken by a devotion to the temporal, and ignoring the role of the citizen. When we are distracted, the bad players gain ground. Each one of us is responsible to uphold and advance the republic with our devotion to principles of human dignity, liberty, the commonweal, stewardship of natural resources that flow to those who will follow us centuries hence. We should all care about standards of living, health care, education and access for all. Electing Joe Biden will not make all of this happen, but it will improve the atmosphere and character of Washington. It will also flush out the malevolence Trump.

party time

     The founders were not enamored with the idea of political parties. Our party structure today is not what it was once. Once upon a time in America, compromise and public good went hand in hand with philosophic differences and party affiliation.

That was before Newt Gingrich made political collegiality a dirty word. This post is long enough, but suffice it to say there are many who say Gingrich's scorched earth style was a foundational enabler to the politics that destroyed the old GOP and made Donald Trump possible. 

    Joe Biden was around before Gingrich and he remembers how it used to work, and it did work. Maybe Old Joe can teach us old tricks. Maybe he can take us back to the future. Maybe Joe can show us the way to Make America Great Again-the United States of America.

a changing of the guard

   My thanks to James Kranzthor, a reader, for this remarkable photo of vultures over looking the Cambria shoreline. Thanks to his wife Lauren for sending the photo to us. 

    As we head into the election finale, I can think of no better image to close the post. 

     Let's dedicate this stunning shot to the last days of Trump and his gang.

    The other nature photos in this post are from our beloved eastern slope of the High Sierras.  

      Stay safe.

      See you down the trail.

Erratic and Menacing in America---ENDING IT!

take him out

       Talk of implementing the 25th Amendment to end the reign of madness has raised the stakes, but it is overdue.

        As reprehensible as it is, Trump's deceptions, lies and full on fantasy could be tolerated if he were not such a stupid man.   

        Many politicians lie or stretch the truth, but no one ever has so abused the truth as Trump, and no President has so abused law, the constitution, convention, protocol, tradition and the aspirational code that has held our democratic republic together. Now, perhaps because of the medicine, or a further break from reality, this malignant narcissist, is acting so irrationally, being so erratic and talking such lunacy he is no longer capable or fit to serve, not that he ever was. In Russia, North Korea, or some of the other strongman nations he cherishes, he would be shot or poisoned.

        Here, to protect him from the violent or traitor's end he may well deserve, we have law and procedure, the very mechanics he never bothered to study, was capable of understanding, or even respect. 

        When you or I talk about invoking the 25th, well it's just amateur hour, but when the Speaker of the House raises it, it become another chapter in the nation's history. 

        There is a confluence of undeniable that will denote Trump; he was impeached, congressional leaders urged use of the 25th because he was unable to perform his duty, and he was never approved by a majority of citizens.

        My worst fear is beginning to emerge. Trump is playing a superman role and is trying to further diminish the consequence of the virus he so mismanaged that he too became a patient. His discounting of the disease is an offense to the families of and those who have perished or suffered seriously. There are now more active cases of covid in the White House than in some nations.

       Under treatment,  though flaunting safety guidelines, Trump has begun to display manic behavior, raging and raving. He needs to be given a time out. Mike Pence could earn a somewhat revered place in American history, if he were to work with Pelosi, Cabinet members and senior Congressional leadership to bench the raving Trump until he is off the medical treatment. Instead he will likely defer, kowtow as Senate Republicans have, furthering enabling the unstable leader. For his efforts Pence will be remembered as a subservient errand boy to one of the worst presidents.  

       Trump was never qualified, fit, nor did he have the character to be President. Trump on steroids is more than an American nightmare, it is a danger to the republic and the world.  

voting has never been more important

      It's a new day for this old reporter, becoming an early voter. 

      Always enjoyed the banter and ambiance of a polling place. Being a journalist I skipped most primary elections, as one needed to declare party affiliation, but I always loved election day, from the casting of the ballot to those late nights on duty, on the air, reporting the results. And the even later night gathering of the team, exhaling, relaxing and decompressing in a pub. There is no experience like election night, the finish line of months of work and prep. But this year it will be different. 

     Has the dawn begun on a new chapter? The early voting is said to be at record setting levels. Certainly the nation is motivated.

    No longer needing to prep for my slot at the anchor desk, my old research instincts get a little workout on assessing the multiple propositions that fill a California ballot.

   We debated waiting until election day to vote in person, but given the vagaries of the pandemic and the additional load that in person voting puts on election officials, also concerned for their health, we opted for the early vote.

 

    This post was intended to be a gentle reminder of the importance of a vote, but the most recent behavior of you know who and the official worry about his erratic actions inspired another direction. I beg the indulgence of you loyal readers.

    I opine and journal as much for my grand children as for our contemporaries. I hope that someday my daughters may use these offerings to help provide insight and understanding into a time that will be history to their children. It may also reveal the ideas and beliefs of Poppy, that old guy in the family photos or their memory. My parents were active participants in government, politics and the affairs of citizenship. To develop a view, and then contribute to the public square is our opportunity and our obligation. I want my grand children to know and understand that.

a tomato with a schnoz

   One of the cherry tomatoes in Lana's crop, presented with a bit of a beak. Hope that might prompt a smile and the scenery might bring a moment of peace.

       Hope that better days are about to dawn.

     Stay safe and stay well.

     See you down the trail.

Debate America

 

presidential debate: a foggy forecast

   The big winner are the vendors providing the coffee and snacks for the meetings underway at the networks, newspapers, campaign leadership and the debate commission offices or zoom meetings. 

    There's a lot of thrashing to do before another debate goes up. Once again American cultural norms have been savaged by the spurious mongrel called Trump.

Photo by Doug Mills New York Times

    We'll see if suggestions the next two debates be scrapped gains any traction. The Florida Town Hall format doesn't assure a better result. If Trump can't abide by rules, we cannot expect his supporters to behave as though they have been house broken either. 

scoring

• Biden did not hurt himself. Trump did not help himself. 
• Republicans have tried to distance themselves, a signal          Trump pooped on his efforts to get swing voters. One of Frank Luntz's focus group, Ruthie from PA said she was undecided going into the debate, but will vote for Biden becasue Trump behaved like a "crackhead."
• Biden answered any questions about his agility. He was able to hold focus and communicate with voters despite having Trump yammering away. Biden can handle any crisis or critical decision to be made in the Oval Office and there will be no bully clown in the room.
• There was a significant tune out as the melee continued meaning a lot of people are fed up with Trump and his  fouling of America. 

     now what

     One of the Murdoch's had Champaign waiting for Chris Wallace when he arrived home from Cleveland. He said he did not feel like celebrating.

     He was off balance and flustered, but in fairness he had no tool to use but reason and a louder voice and those would fail against Trump in his best "Il Duce" drag.

     In 42 years of journalism and broadcasting I moderated many debates, but never encountered anyone as ignorantly belligerent as Trump. The mic kill switch was something I always wanted and I practiced in a more sane and genteel time.

    Something needs to be done, if the institution of a Presidential Debate is to have meaning, significance and benefit to the electorate. I'd counsel for clowns waiting off stage with seltzer bottles, dispatched when needed. That arrangement of color and hair that rides atop Il Duce's head  would respond in interesting ways to a good soaking. Maybe that could keep him in check. After all that coiffure was expensed for some $70 thousand in his tax returns. If I were Wallace I would have asked about that. Is that hair style worth 

that much?

in closing

   This from historian Jon Meacham:

"No hyperbole: The incumbent's behavior...is the lowest moment in the history of the Presidency since Andrew Johnson's racist state papers."

    From David Brooks   New York Times

"I'm the most horrified I've been in my career as a political journalist and the most relieved. This election won't be close. Have faith in the American people."

   To my friends abroad, I am again embarassed for this nation. I'm not alone. There are millions of us. One of the most forwarded pieces today has been an article about where and how people can leave if Trump is re-elected. 

    On additional reflection, I suggest the debate commission provide the next two hosts, Steve Scully of C-SPAN and Kristen Welker of NBC with cattle prods-turned to high.

    Stay well. Take care of each other.

    See you down the trail.

 

America Convoluted

shades of gray

    If anyone knows how the next couple of months of political drama/trauma will resolve, they are a seer. We are in a perfect storm of political discord. It would not be so serious if the President was not a rogue, and delusional.

    No one can say with certainty where this is headed. These days are full of intrigue, consequence, and intricate to the degree everything is a shade of gray. We are convoluted.

   It is not unlike the central California shoreline. Time and natural forces record the combination of elements that make reality. The closer you look, the more you see. 

    Clean lines do not exist. Nothing is smooth. There is no purity of single element. What we have is a composite, a forced assimilation of geology, an amalgamation of time, nature, and material. Is that not so in 2020?

    Where in nature we can read the forces and effect of  pressure in the lines, it is the same for this nation.

     As founder Benjamin Franklin said after the arduous and combative work of creating the Constitution when he was asked "what kind of government have you given us?" "A republic if you can keep it."

     For the last 233 years we have kept it. We have played by rules. We have seen generations of leaders come and go and abide by defining principles and transitions of power. Compromise and the common good rose above strident party loyalty, or worse, personal avarice, desire and ego. The song lines are in our history. 

   Even if Donald Trump was a great man, a person of the majority, in favor with most Americans, still his behavior would be sordid and unAmerican. That he is the deplorable reprobate tin horn dictator he is, makes his behavior dangerous. 

do we deserve trump?

       It is a hard and unpopular question. But we must ask if we have so abused our system of government and politics with money and greed, and have we so failed at education to teach civics, government and critical reasoning and have we become such a self indulgent consumer society that we have failed to keep a Republic?

rebellion

    You can't look at the aftermath of earth making and not see the presence of storms of force, uplift, shifts and breaking away and more.

    As founder and third President Thomas Jefferson wrote to founder and fourth President James Madison "...a little rebellion now and then is a good thing, and as necessary in the political world as storms in the physical."

the death rattle

   The under representation of the majority and the over representation of the minority is, unless it is fixed, a death rattle for this democratic republic. It is a rebellion past due.

    I come down on the side that we respect the bones of the constitution, but we adjust to make it viable in our age. We have done this from the origin, first Bill of Rights, and later only after struggle, by extending full citizenship to African Americans, to women, to ending repression and oppression, and even to hemming in the indulgent excesses of the money classes. We have evolved and shifted.

    Traditionally Republicans have been all about protecting property value, wealth and individual rights. Democrats have opted for the common good, extending rights and protection against the abuse of corporations and government and using government power to fix social wrongs. But Trump has lobotomized  the Republican ethic and disemboweled its previously vigorous policy on national security. 

      Democrats gave the Republicans in Congress a chance to rid themselves of the Trump menace, but they failed to seize the moment and made their alliance with the fraudulent. They could be smug about giving the wealthy another tax break, and filling the courts with conservatives, some who are zealots and inexperienced. They sold their soul, such as it was.

     The Supreme Court appointment replacing RGB will come back to haunt the Republicans, should Biden win and should the Democrats flip the Senate.   

what about the trump nation?

     Excluding the courts, most of the Trump damage can be amended and changed. Environmental roll backs, dozens of regulations, rejoining climate pacts, reasserting traditional international leadership and dignity in diplomacy, putting professionals back to work at the State Department and in national security, even reestablishing national healthcare, should the conservative court strike it down. Some in the Democrat party push for use of muscle, perhaps even to increase the size of the Supreme Court to make up for the shameful Republican packing. A legislative tough love, an eye for an eye.

    But what about those most belligerent Trump supporters, who sadly congregate largely in ignorance of truth. Trump does not speak it, and Fox News is a propaganda mill, by acknowledgement of those who work there and even some of the ownership.

nests attached to bluffs along the pacific coast near cayucos

   The US is divided, some say as bad as it has been since the 1860s, the verge of the Civil War. Here are some facts:

•     Trump is alone among all Presidents since polling began 80 years ago to have never received approval from a majority of voters.

•  Pew Research finds that 9 in 10 Trump supporters are White-Democrats; 6 in 10 are White
•  3 out of 5 Biden supporters say Whites have an advantage---only 5% of Trump supporters think that.
•   Biden supporters think Fox News, OANN and evangelical pastors have duped or "brain washed" Trump supporters.
•  Trump supporters think Biden supporters have been duped by mainstream media, newspapers, professors and Hollywood

     Previous research has found that conservatives in general and Trump supporters even more so, live with more fear, dislike outsiders, and are believers of conspiracy theories no matter how absurd or fictionalized.

      America is indeed divided. There are wide gaps on race, gender, and immigration. Trump has fanned fears, and refused to be a President for all people. As they say, he plays to the base, only. 

      His base is a minority, mostly white, with less education, and increasingly inclined to give credibility to the belief that Trump is doing battle with occult worshiping, pedophiles who are embedded deep in the government. They also believe that John F. Kennedy is still alive and living in Pittsburgh. How is a nation supposed to deal with people like that?

     It is as though we've gone insane. 4 years of Trump's insanity has made this a sick and divided nation. For years Bill Maher has been asking what will we do when he refuses to leave office. Now it is a serious national discussion. It's a shame no sitting Republicans will do what droves of those who have left the party have done, and that is to say aloud, Trump is a maniac, let alone unfit and unqualified and he is now a clear and present danger to the nation.

     Though it appears there is nothing that can persuade the Trump base to consider the truth, history and to be objective.

The more I study the Trump base and see and hear them the more I am reminded of people I saw when doing investigative reporting on cults. Sadly this only affirms my fears, noted here 4 years ago, that Trump's core is reminiscent of the 1922 brownshirts of Hitler. Then their street politics helped Hitler build an occult based police state and party that was one of the most diabolical in human history. We have been watching a slow moving coup and systematic dismantling of American excellence and respect. 

      Those marginal voters who tilt conservative and appreciate the court packing, or who benefit from tax breaks, business loans, or who applaud less government oversight of water, air and business practices are accomplices as much as the racists, xenophobes, one issue zealots and belligerent ignorant who are the minority presidents, minority base. Unless and until the republic fixes the problem of under representation of the majority and over representation of the minority, all we can tell Dr. Franklin is, we couldn't keep it.

     The first step of rebellion is flip the senate and win the White House. It is time to change the American political landscape with seismic shifts and a relentless pursuit of the thugs who mugged, raped and tried to kill our republic.  

            Vigilance in every step of the voting and vote count.

An historic get out the vote effort and response. And we must be prepared to rise up to demand honesty, fairness and a lawful process and hopefully transition of power. We may have to put our bodies in the street. We may have to be willing to sacrifice to preserve and keep the Republic.

        Stay well.

         See you down the trail.

 

And now this! What is your choice, America?

pacific sonata and soliloquy 

   A stiff onshore wind cleared the thought that was stuck on replay since a friend's text, deploring the latest offense of 2020, stuck it in my mind. RBG gone less than 24 hours and already the jackals were salivating, revealing a soulless betrayal of their own perversity, again!

     A bluff trail along a rugged stretch was the antidote of choice. Our national tragedy just got worse. Fresh air and surf gave me some distance to riddle it out.

     I know we're in new territory, a place that is dangerous to the continued existence of the republic as we have known it, but we've gone even deeper into the dark woods. We'll explore our national mood, a bit further down the trail.

ash on the gold

    What is top of the mind, the crisis of the day? Out here on the West coast we've been forced into thinking about long term implications. Giant fires, loss of life and billions in property, limited resources, fouled air with a deleterious global impact. 

    Climate change is changing the course of history. California, the magical land of golden sun, beaches, mountains and redwoods, where the future and fantasy are built, Disney, Hollywood, Apple,Tesla, Google, and the place that loomed alluringly in the lives of boomers with every note of the Beach Boys, Eagles or Grateful Dead, must now navigate a veil of uncertainty. There is smoke and ash on the gold.

been bad before

    The calculus for our daughters and grandchildren is a different data set than we used to engineer our aspirations. But there is always the X factor, human ingenuity, and now augmented by artificial intelligence and machine learning.  

     Sitting around the dinner table recently, hearing them voice concerns about the future of their work, their children's lives, education, the government, state of the civilization and all, the best fatherly sagacity I could muster was, it's been bad before, but somehow the spirit leads to evolution, improvement and survival.

   the new "moon shot"

    Our parents would not recognize some of our everyday routines. And so it will be for our kids, and for us. Change is accelerating and it must. Life is coming at us more quickly.

    Here are a couple ideas I've tried to seed. President Biden, and we hope that is so, should do a "moonshot" approach on wildfires. All of humanity would benefit. 

    With scientists, technologists, environmentalists, foresters, architects, builders and firefighters in concert, we can find a better way to mange forests and wild land, prevent fire perhaps, battle back at blazes and survive them.

    It's more than a sci-fi notion, why can't our brightest design robotic, mechanical, scalable, "Transformer" like massive firefighting equipment and technology that can do what and go where humans cannot? Designed to adapt to all terrain, loaded or rapidly refilled with water or firefighting chemicals, able to attack blazes and withstand what brave humans can't. A fanciful notion? Perhaps, but this planet's future will involve fire on a scale unknown to our history. It's time for new thought. When JFK committed the US to get to the moon in a decade, it all had to be invented and made possible. 

   new ways to build

   Homes need to be built and coded differently where fires burn. I'm not a designer, but I told the girls if we were building today, we'd design a home that includes a large section that is subterranean, built with concrete, cement, metal and other fire resistant materials. Interior and exterior sprinkler or retardant systems and more would be part of the plan.

    After hurricanes devastated coastal homes, insurance companies, state, and federal agencies mandated new building codes. The same should go for those of us who live in states where wild fires are a reality. It would mean a massive change in construction, materials, design, and planning. It would no doubt limit development in some areas, but not to change is foolish. 

    Simply put, we need to get busy inventing our future, with an intentionality, and in response to what science and experience  inform us. 

the rise of the beast

       An incompetent, criminal, minority President who is mentally ill and a liar without precedent, the deadly pandemic, and a terribly managed response, the bull goose looney Attorney General aroused by a growing authoritarianism, a cult like party largely brainwashed or belligerently ignorant and proud of it, the nation's diminished international standing, being seen as a stooge of Putin, and a trend to reverse civil rights apparently is not bad enough juju so now we have a Supreme Court vacancy to get exercised about. 

      Well, we have McConnell, and Graham and others in the Senate saying there should be no court nominee put forward so close to a Presidential election. But that was when a Black President, and a Democrat had an appointment to make. Now they have a White Racist Republican whose feet they lick. In the real world, there goes the notion of principle. 

      Do you remember when intelligent minds told us never to accept Trump and his gang as normal and never normalize the aberrant behavior? Did we ever have a chance, with one disaster or outrage leading to another?

     Are there any Republicans, old fashioned true Republicans left in the Senate? I guess we'll see. 

     I suspect I'll be back on trails, grabbing as much pacific breeze antidote as I can in these next few weeks. In the near term we should celebrate the life of Ruth Bader Ginsburg, an extraordinary human being who lifted the greatness of the US by her devotion to principle, liberty, intellect, law and a sense of human dignity. 

      Citizens deserve a process and timeline that allows us to think and reason. There has been precious little of that in the last 4 years. If this deplorable administration and its quisling minions in the Senate try to fill the court at this juncture, there may well be a seismic rumble. Two visions of the US are available to citizens this year. One leads to repair and problem solving. The other one is the super spreader of despair and problem making. 

      Stay safe. Take care of each other. Vote. Encourage others to vote.

      See you down the trail.

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.