Day 925 Friday July 19, 2019
472 Days until the 2020 election and 554 days until the Inauguration
I was going to talk about the sad state of our union and the world. How the chiselers and fore flushers are not only chipping away at our democracy but at our planet. As I made my coffee I turned on the TV. There was a retrospective on Our sending a man to the Moon. I heard John Kennedy speak. “We choose to go to the Moon, not because it is easy, but that it is hard.” His words still send a shiver down my spine. He united us with his dream. The accomplishments of the Apollo program united not just the nation but the world. One sixth of humanity watched Neil Armstrong make that historic step.
Now?
On the eve of this day I listened to our president deny the very thing he had done the night before. Repeatedly lie. This after listening that afternoon to the acting Director of Homeland Security say he hoped, hoped, that what they were doing would stop the flow of immigrants. This despite all evidence to the contrary. He lied about what was going on at our southern border. I had to turn it off.
Then I learned why the Bureau of Land Management is being uprooted and moved to Colorado. A fat faced shill for the oil and gas companies has been moved in as the acting secretary of the Interior and he lives in Colorado. This fact and the fact that the Trump administration may have successfully gotten rid of anyone in the department of Agriculture that is telling the truth has emboldened them to get rid of anyone who might protect our public lands. Remember the last secretary? Ryan Zinke? Yeah, the guy who insisted that they fly his personal flag on the Interior building anytime he was there? The guy who rode a horse to work the first day? The guy who had to resign amid a bunch of personal scandal? His replacement is cut from similar cloth.
One of Trump’s cronies wants to build a 28,000 home community in Benson Arizona, population 5,000, complete with golf courses, in the desert, where they don’t have enough water now. Imagine what 28,000 homes and a bunch of golf courses will do to the area? Bureau of Land Management folks have been saying they need to study the situation more. Not anymore! They’ve been told to get in line and shape up. Get with the program.
A while back I talked about the Roman Republic and how it ended up falling to the tyranny of a single man, an emperor. Once you get that kind of strong man government it’s hard to get rid of it. In the case of Rome, it took 700 years and then chaos for many centuries after. One of the big causes of the fall was people chipping away at the institutions. Everyone taking their little piece, and not supporting what they had. After all, as far as they knew the Republic had been there for as long as they lived, why should it change? They’ll just grab a little bit for themselves. Who’s going to notice?
I’ve mentioned a buddy of mine who said his grand parents grew up in Germany, Prussia, actually, as Hitler was coming to power. “They all knew he was crazy, but when they decided to act it was too late.”
I heard an interview yesterday with a scientist who has studied the water situation on the Indian subcontinent. Much of that area depends on the glaciers in the Hindu-Kush. You know, where Mount Everest is? Yeah well the glaciers are melting. By 2100, in the best case scenario 50% of the glaciers will be left. More likely only 30%. Farmers also depend on ground water. However, with “modern” techniques they have had to go deeper and deeper to find water. This has multiple effects. Roots of plants can no longer reach the water table and die, and oh yeah, they eventually will run out of water from the ground. The melting glaciers mean less water from them. The overall effect? Well, it’s already a problem. The six countries that depend on this water are already squabbling over it. Imagine what will happen when two nuclear armed countries are facing little or no water?
Meanwhile in uplifting news, Ilan Omar went home to her crime infested hell hope, called Minnesota, and was met by a large cheering crowd.
Megan Rapinoe was interviewed in the back of last week’s Time magazine, which I finally got around to looking at.
I will leave you with her words.
“Calm Yourself,
Believe in Yourself,
Stick to your Routine,
Smash it Home.”
472 Days until the 2020 election and 554 days until the Inauguration
PS The author practicing his Megan Rapinoe victory pose. GOALLLLL!!!!!!
Nice grill.