No Sunshine for Kevin

        When we came to California almost 18 years ago I started watching Kevin McCarthy, said to be a rising star. We had dear friends who moved from Bakersfield, accomplished people with government and academic service. They knew Kevin at close quarters and it was solid information to help me calibrate the "man" behind the political facade.

      Well, as just about every analyst has said, McCarthy engineered his own fall by his ego, his "craving" to be Speaker at any cost, his concessions to the most radical wing of his caucus all of which made him weak and as John Heilemann noted, "Matt Gaetz knew they could roll him."

         So now no one knows what comes next for the House divided Republicans, some of whom are only nihilists. Maybe the Republicans can heal their divide and settle on a woman or man who can A) get enough votes and B) actually be able to lead. That does not seem likely now, so we could be left with a bozo food fight among Republicans while government crashes.

        Here's an interesting bit of speculation akin to doggerel. Find 10 traditional or stable Republicans who value democracy and who believe in governance. One of them nominates Hakeem Jeffries for Speaker and suddenly the House becomes a chamber where business can be done and no longer a clown show at war with itself.

        Long shot? Sure! But we are at another "never been here before" moment and the fight to save American democracy will take bold strokes. 

        There is a carnival lot of well fed, under educated, classless, clueless, locked and loaded people who are under the MAGA spell and tent. That is where truth goes to die, maybe history too. 

        As they used to say, it's "hard ball time!"

        Sam Rayburn was elected Speaker of House 3 times and worked with Senate Leader Lyndon Johnson in the in the late 50's and early 60's to get early Civil Rights legislation passed, though it meant he had to court Republicans to compensate for and/or try to persuade Dixiecrats in all three of his terms as Speaker.

        Carl Albert was elected Speaker in 71 and presided over the investigation and resignation of Vice President Spiro Agnew and then the Watergate investigation that resulted in the impeachment and resignation of Richard Nixon. Even in those historic and partisan times, Albert sought the needed support of the minority caucus. 

        Both of those events were before Newt Gingrich seeded the political soil with toxins and cancer, but this Biden administration has been able to produce an historic volume of bi-partisan legislation, so there are still Republicans who are reachable, who have not drunk the MAGA kool aid.   

        It would be nice to think that of the 435 members of the House there are enough Republicans who understand a working government is better than a broken government. It would be nice to think there are enough "public servants" who recognize that a crisis exists and that deliberation and compromise are better options. 

        See you down the trail.

 

...and who is the enemy?

              A favorite saying from the 1970's struck me as I commiserated this era of dysfunction, threat and exasperating stupidity.

        "We have met the enemy and he is us."

        Walt Kelly inked that line for his character Pogo and it was meant as a defeated recognition that "us" was the enemy behind pollution and environmental destruction. The cartoonist had parodied a battle report from American Naval Commander Oliver Perry to Major General William Henry Harrison after the US defeated the British Navy in the Battle of Lake Erie in the War of 1812. Perry had written "We have met the enemy and they are ours." 

        Pogo's phrase is again a fit vituperation for what has become of "us" in this time. We are our own enemy.

        To be sure, there are many variants in the epidemic of stupidity. I beg a moment of your attention to address one that I know a lot about.

        Media is off focus, out of proportion, increasingly ephemeral and wrong headed. In defense of the profession where I spent a half century laboring, there are places of excellence and too there are many reasons for the demise we witness.

        So much of broadcast news, print journalism and on-line is a waste of time and even silly. This is what happens when newspapers are killed by financial vultures, when reporting and editing staffs are thinned to ludicrous levels so profits are boosted, when broadcast and print are forced into the blender of social media, a world of platforms that do not operate by the old journalism codes of conduct, ethics or canons. The public's "right to know" is now an afterthought, if even that, and it has become part of the broil that is ratings, revenue, investment portfolios, news deserts and a who cares attitude. 

        Some things are fixable. 

        Stop obsessing about the latest opinion poll. That is not news, it is a contrivance.

         There are flaws in using polling as news, not the least of which is that most polls today are skewed, flukey, and even if they are scientific they are nothing more than a view shared on that day by a small number of people. There is no guarantee about scientific precision or weighting. 

        Many so called polls and surveys are fronts for political operators.

        Good pollsters tell you political polls this far out mean nothing more than the dental floss you will discard tonight. Yet news groups, including those who should know better, ballyhoo and hype the latest assessment of America's mindset. 

        Ask yourself, with the rampant stupidity at large, with the miserable understanding of history by most Americans who were educated in the last 40 years, with the gullibility of generations pounded by advertising and behavioral manipulation for the transactions of a consumer market of things and stuff, do you really care what this age of polled opinions have to say. Given the givens, what is the value of turning what they think into news?!  Here's the news about that, they don't know any more than you do and likely they know a lot less. So why celebrate ignorance and opinions? The story the media is missing is how poorly informed, how inarticulate and how dumb this nation is becoming.  

        There is an underpinning factor that leads the young precious news staffers of this age to care so much about opinion poll reporting, aside from the fact they have all been raised in an age of click bait, and that is the unholy belief that Presidential politics is the holy grail and be all of US News, followed closely by all electoral politics. There is an electoral/political industry that has emerged and it is huge business, a cash cow for pollsters, analysts, consultants, media specialists, speechwriters, fashion advisors, advertisers and more. This billion dollar industry relies on and manipulates its kindred news business. 

        Time was broadcast news was a loss leader, the cost of having a license to print money. Now it is a profit center and news is just a product. 

        Let's be clear, this election cycle is critical to the survival of representative democracy. One party has abandoned belief in the historical American system of government with winners and losers and transitions of power. When US media cast any reporting outside of that reality, when they engage in a false equivalency or the so called "equal" time philosophy they are being suckered in by strategy and tactics of those who seek to destroy American democracy. It is time for the news industry to reassess how to proceed on a war footing, in a time of information warfare.

       Before we depart this issue of overplaying, hyping, tying almost every story to an old fashioned political peg, if you think I am wrong, then consider the players. Examine the people and the values they display, from school boards to the US House and Senate. 

        Truth, facts, and liberty are are the abused and battered family members of our American democracy at this moment in our history. That is part of a political strategy and goal and media is an accomplice. There is an off ramp.

        Because of who and what this nation is and has been through, you have influence both on media and on the political industry. If you get organized or loud enough you can apply pressure. You can boycott, put pressure on advertisers, disconnect, avoid media, get in the face of elected representatives, call them out, vote them out. 

        

        Do what you can to activate your philosophy. Stick to the facts. Speak the truth. Remember both leading presidential candidates are essentially the same age, there is a 3 year difference. Would you know by media coverage?

        That's the view from the ridge, the opinion of one who thinks democracy is the best choice of any form of government.

        See you down the trail. 

      

Meditation in Grey

 

        77 years ago Mary Helen gave birth to the first born of she and Karl. That was in Indianapolis. Today that boy took a walk in California.

      It was a meditation. Each step was a celebration. Each sound was praise.

    Peace.

    See you down the trail.

Peculiarities

         The double rainbow, as seen from our deck last evening, was the beginning of the rain season on the California central coast. Rain season ends and begins in July, so our August .2 of an inch is an early start and a bit peculiar.

        And so is this. The other evening as I walked back from taking out some trash I spotted and and then was buzzed by the "smallest hummingbird I've seen" as I said to Lana.

        "Really?" she said, going back to what she was reading.

        Well, she saw it the next day, with our granddaughter and she was a bit more excited about it.

        It is not a hummingbird, but it has a wing flap rate as high as the hummers. It is a White-lined Sphinx Moth and grows to 2-3 inches. Speedy little creature.

        These we found on a lupine bush. They were interrupted long enough to be inspected by granddaughter and Nana, and photographed before being returned to their bliss on the lupine.

        

        This was a sunset cocktail companion the other evening at a Camp Ocean Pines fundraising event. 

        I frequently hear some of his cousins as they observe their nightly vespers here on the ridge.

        Time to cue the frog. Actually as I opened the spa cover yesterday a little dude had taken to napping next to the control buttons. Granddaughter and Nana got a chance to spot it, before his spoiled nap led him to leap to the step and then to dash under the spa.

        Sorry Kermit...so I'll vamp and quote your song, that Jim Henson helped you 

pen....

        "What's on the other side?

        Rainbows are visions, but only illusions.

        And rainbows have nothing to hide.

        So we've been told and some choose to believe it

        I know they're wrong, wait and see.

        Someday we'll find it, the rainbow connection,

        the lovers, the dreamers and me."

        See you down the trail.

        

A Day for America

         There is a moment, a threshold, when something severely injured begins to die or begins to recover. The day Donald Trump was indicted for trying to overthrow America is such a moment. 

       US citizens will watch as the nation's 247 years of history endure the spasm of trying to cure itself of a poison that sought to destroy the historic process of choosing leaders and transferring power.

        Patriots are those who stand against a nation's enemies and detractors. Those of us who live here will learn if fidelity to the cause of the democratic republic will empower our future. The indictments make it clear Donald Trump lied, tried to cheat, conspired and endeavored to destroy the nation's constitutional process, and the honor bound tradition of presidential succession. 

        Last summer the Investigation into January 6 documented the deceptions, trickery, and the role of Trump in inciting the attack on the US Capitol, the nation's transfer of power ritual, and the brutal attack on law enforcement. It was a rebellion that was fed by lies, and acted upon by gullible and malevolent forces and all of it was at the behest of a man who will forever stand as America's most vile political hustler. It was an extraordinary public documentation. 

       The Justice department has prosecuted hundreds of those who violently attacked the Capitol, as a result of the conspiracy.

        Now, the indictments of this day further turn the wheels of justice. This is for the future of our aging republic and to place Trump's name and reputation in chains and a cage for history, forever banished from civility because of his perversity. Of course he is innocent until proven guilty.

        There is no reason to trust the man to do anything but love only himself and to lie, cheat, sell our national secrets and launch armies only for his own glory. He could not accept his loss, and so he became an enemy of America. He is a tin god and we will watch our justice system flush him away.

        There are other indictments, and there will be other cases and they are an accumulative judgement that will render Trump, MAGA republicans, and his time in power as the nadir of the American presidency.

        It has been wrong, judgmental and perhaps even haughty of myself to hold those who support Trump with such contempt. This should be a nation of such freedom to survive faulty judgements and even our failures. 

        I have not been proud of this nation. I have been worried about collective bad judgments. But today is a good day.

        This is a day when, in a sense, we watch ourselves display a fealty to the aspirations and ideals of the American experiment. This is a day when there are signs we have chosen to live, to heal. This is a day of and for history. This is a day for America.

        See you down the trail. 

What goes around comes around

        This moment was ripe with transcendence. 

       It was an unseasonably warm day, especially for a breakdown, but the man at the side of the road was blissful. 

        I stopped and asked "is everything OK?

        "It's great," he beamed.

        "You are the picture of determination," I said.

        "It's all fixed now."

        "Have a good day. Take care," I offered.

        "It's a great day. Have a good life" he smiled.

        Exuberantly peaceful, broken down, at the bottom of a hill! 

        The scene and his spirit launched me on a mind journey. I thought of the Wheel of Life, the the Bhavackra of Tibetan Buddhism. 

        That prompted the old saying "what goes around comes around" a kind of modern idiom of the ancient "as you sew, so shall you reap." 

         Karma?

       The consequence of one's actions will have to be dealt with, eventually. 

       

        By then thoughts tumbled in their own spin. Turning from Buddhism, to the Bible, and the Hindu Bhagavad Gita, (Song of God) resting on the axiom of science, for every action there is a reaction.

      I marvel at the fast circuit to such deepness after a chance encounter with a happy fixer of a broken thing.

        The profound truths stayed with me. They danced across my mind the next day as I was cooled by the mist and blowing fog that crossed the path of my hike, even as friends elsewhere sweltered in triple digit  and historic heat.

        I thought of Black Elk's Earth Prayer to the Great Spirit, older than all need. "Hey lean to hear my feeble voice. At the center of the sacred hoop."

        As our own sphere revolves and rotates in an ancient wheel around the sun, things are changing. 

        Our grandkids listen to cataclysmal projections as we witness scientist's surprise by how quickly those things are changing.

       It's a complex equation, life, still indecipherable and always beyond the reach of our expanding knowledge. Still, we have learned there is consequence to actions we have taken.

        Science!

       

       We have been braced and sustained, guided and blessed by a knowledge  ancient in mystery. It arrives as a longing, pushing us to a connection, exceeding the sum of our collective intellect, all too frequently assertive. Empiricism changes the boundaries. Certainty is elusive. 

      The mystery is deeper than we knew, even where heart and brain intersect. Soul? Spirit? Essence? Cosmic breath?

       People can grow in the face of the mystery, others seek not to look.

        Every tongue and culture, all tribes and histories hum primordial aspiration and drum admonition to uphold cosmic principle. How we live matters. 

       In origin stories, verses, parables, songs and eschatologies of every age there looms consequence. Woe to soiled and defiled cities, to oppressive regimes, priests who profane the sacred, judges who are wolves, officials who are corrupt, those who ignore the hungry, naked and homeless, those who shun mercy and justice; heat of anger, fire of passion, trembling mountains, earth consumed when we do not uphold life and prepare for new generations as sacred purpose.

            Black Elk's prayer "...with tears running O Great Spirit, my Grandfather, with running eyes I must say the tree has never bloomed.  Here I stand, and the tree is withered. Again, I recall the great vision you gave me. It maybe that some little root of the sacred tree still lives..."

            No matter creed, faith, philosophy or dreams, we need to protect the little root. Life comes first, before power or wealth. Life.

            There is work, one little piece at a time, and there will be struggle. How many can we count to be happy fixers of broken things?

          At a recent gathering, as much of the conversation stirred the anxieties, all of those broken things and places on this planet, a few of the crowd said they are happy to be aging out at the time they are, not wanting to face what may come. I took a countering view, expressing disappointment that I will not see all of the fixes and wonders the next century will bring. Our potential and promise rises from the sacred root that compels humankind to sew hope and touch stars, create and think and survive to tread on the edge of mystery. 

          Science. Soul. Sacred Principle. Our choices make a difference. 

        See you down the trail.

        

Dave Bennett-One of the Greats

         We were sorry to learn that Dave Bennett passed over the last weekend.

The last time I called he was too weak to take a call but his beloved Judy was the communication link. 

        After a long struggle and failing health, Dave is free from the suffering but his legion of friends and fans will miss him.

        Dave was an extraordinary guitar player. Our paths crossed back when we were young men. Lana went to high school with Dave and even then he evinced his talent.

        He played for years in a great band, toured the country, made albums, gathered a following who loved the music. But he and his bandmates who approached greatness, never got that show biz break to emerge as the kind of international superstars that would have made them famous and wealthy. They deserved that. They were more talented than some who played higher on the bill, but it's not just about talent. Like most things in life, it takes luck and politics.

        So after a time music became something he did for love and fun because like the other guys there were professions and jobs to pay the bills and provide for the family.

        Our sympathy goes to Judy, daughters Kelli, Amy and son Tyler. And to his mates including Dave, Carl, Mark, Gary, Alan, Pat, Jon, Teddy, John, Dan, Dane, Brent, Gracie and others I've probably forgotten. 

        A few years ago Dave flirted with the idea of a move to California and we were excited that we might even be neighbors. His roots were in central Indiana where today there are a lot of aching hearts. He was mellow, a cool and good guy.

        I can't count the number of nights I saw Dave on stage. A few years ago I told him the all time number 1 on my CD play list was his solo album Out of the Bleu.

Dinner parties, cocktail gatherings, or just me wanting to hear some virtuoso playing  it has filled our home. If you can, try to find a copy and you'll understand why those of us who heard him call him extraordinary. I'm grateful for all of the music he leaves, that way we can still enjoy him at his best, doing what he did so well and what he loved.

        RIP.

        See you down the trail.