Archives for December 2023

Thursday, December 7, 2023

When I got up this morning the sun had not yet risen over the mountains across the bay. I knew where the sun would appear because we are close to the shortest day of the year and there are two notches on the rightmost side of Sergeant Mountain where on December 20th the sun will appear in the farthest notch to the right marking the apex of its travel.

I was hoping for a green flash, which can occur if the sightline to the horizon is smooth and there are no clouds in the way. I knew that in February when the sun rises over Cadillac Mountain where there are smooth rock and few trees you can get a green flash. In the wintertime there is no humidity so the green light is like a laser, burning bright for that instant and then it’s gone. I sat with my father one February and we waited every morning hoping to see it. We saw it once. It burns in your memory.

I saw no flash this morning but what I did see were wisps of vapor rising off the ocean. They moved in undulating rows, as if fans at a football game – one row moving left another right. It reminded me of Joyce Kilmer, whom many think is a woman but was actually a poet from New Jersey who wrote the poem “Trees”.

I think I shall never see

A poem as lovely as a tree.

Those are the opening two lines. It’s a simple poem, only six two line verses long. But like the wisps of water I am watching it speaks volumes. The wisps have now circulated in a flat vortex and I can see long tendrils trying to grasp the distant island. Brief light winds move the wisps like a shepherd’s dog herding.

There’s a beauty in the simplicity of what I am watching. The sun has disappeared behind the clouds and its light is forming a bright band beneath the larger more somber clouds. Ducks have appeared swimming close to shore. Where do they go at night? And where did they come from?  They break the quiet silence with their ducky grumble chortling, and move on.

There is magic in the air and I have seen it.

Tuesday, December 5, 2023

I was watching an interview last night with Liz Cheney. Her book comes out today. She is telling what happened in the Republican Party before during and after January 6th. She is concerned that Trump may get re-elected and that it would be the end of our republic. 

It comes down to that famous quote by Maya Angelou, “When someone tells you who they are believe them.” 

There a exceptions. George Santos. I mean, he’s a volleyball star on a college team to a school he never went to? Come on.

But Trump and the far right have told us in no uncertain terms what they plan to do if they take power. The amazing thing is how many are willing to go along with these ideas. I liken it to when did the indians who sided with Cortes realize that it might not have been their best decision?

In some of these very Republican states the only news they get … excuse me, the only information they get … is from right wing lie outlets like Fox, OAN, and NewsMax. That’s because they are the only game in town.

Ignore facts and the truth and keep spouting lies, eventually people will believe you. Once they do it’s hard for them to change course – in for a dime in for a dollar, etc.

So what’s going to happen? If Trump is found guilty will he still be the nominee of the party? Probably. Will he win? Unfortunately, our electoral system allows for a candidate with less votes than another person to become President. In the last eight or nine presidential elections the Republican nominee had fewer votes than the Democratic nominee in ever case save one.

Amazingly, Republican candidates for many offices push unfavorable ideas. They even know they are unfavorable. Therefore, they do whatever they can to game the system. Ohio is an example. The people overwhelmingly voted to enshrine abortion rights into their constitution, yet the Republican legislators are doing all kinds of things to try and stop it.

In Pennsylvania, Rick Santorum that sanctimonious …, has come out and said that democracy is a terrible way to govern. Why? I guess because he would not be able to get his nutty fake Christian education and abortion ideas past a majority of voters.

But Donnie T has told us what he intends to do if re-elected:

– marshal law from day one,

– use the military to arrest and round up citizens,

– put thousands, maybe millions, in detention camps,

– arrest and imprison his opponents,

– ignore the courts and the Constitution.

If you vote for Trump know what you are voting for.

As Liz Cheney has said – it is the end of our democracy, the end of our republic.

Maybe, we should go out and have Trump voters take a pledge.

“I want to end our democracy that’s why I am voting for Trump.”

Maybe a follow up should be the question, “You realize Donald Trump wants to suspend the Constitution, which means no more Second Amendment, which means he and the Republicans are coming for your guns?”

In other news, Ammon Bundy, the guy who did the big standoff in a National Park in 2018 claiming all kinds of terrible things the government did when in fact the government bailed out ailing farmers has lost a defamation suit to St. Luke’s Hospital in Idaho. WTF? 

From what I have learned a buddy of Ammon’s named Rodriguez brought his daughter into St. Luke’s. The kid was near death from malnutrition. The doctors were able to get a feeding tube into the kid, who responded and started gaining weight. The hospital would not release the kid back to Rodriguez for obvious child abuse reasons. (Apparently, god fearing Christians are not allowed to starve their children to near death – who knew?) Rather than be appreciative of the hospital for saving the kid’s life, Bundy started spouting off and the hospital sued him for defamation. He owes a bunch of money. He didn’t pay. They took his house and got his websites taken down where he made his defamatory claims, now they are after him for more. He’s in hiding. Good.

For some reason, you can’t make inane accusatory comments and not be held to account.

Monday, December 4, 2023

There’s nothing like a snowfall to calm oneself.

The quiet, the snow dampens the sound. The calmness of winter.

Whatever, I had planned seems remote and unimportant.

I’ve got a fire going. No one else is up.

It does put me in a festive mode.

Then I remember all the stuff going on in the world.

I watched a few lips from the Newsom DeSantis “debate.”

It was more a schooling of old Ron. He stood there with a silly look on his face while Governor Newsom brought out fact after fact about what the Biden administration done to help the people of Florida and how DeSantis has worked to go against the wishes of the people of Florida.

Then there’s Trump. He’s told people what he intends to do if he becomes President again, and he still has people willing to vote for him. 

Gaza is a mess and won’t be solved until the mothers in Israel say, “Enough.”

Ukraine? Overwhelming force or the death of Putin are the only two solutions that I see.

But for now, I’m happy that the snow is falling and I have a fire.

And electricity!

Take care. Be … good? Well, not bad. Not too bad. 

Sunday, December 3, 2023

I’m with Stephanie Ruhle on this, “Dancing with the Stars, don’t do it.”

Wednesday, November 29, 2023

I listened to Alice’s Restaurant again this Thanksgiving time and I can’t stop hearing Arlo Gutherie’s voice saying, “I mean … I mean ….” and then “you gotta lot of nerve asking me if I can kill women and children after being found guilty for littering”

But I’m thinking about the House of Representatives holding a vote to eject George Santos and I have to ask myself, and them if they were here, “don’t ya think you got a lot of nerve ousting someone for lying?” 

What was it? Was it the fact that everything he said was a lie? Versus you all? What percentage of what you say is a lie? I’m not talking about saying stuff that you thought was to be true and later turned out to be incorrect, I’m talking about saying stuff that you knew at the time to be an outright lie. Huh? What’s your percentage? Is it okay to lie 50% of the time or just twenty-five? Seventy-five? Do I hear seventy-five? But not 100, no, no, no. Okay maybe it wasn’t one hundred percent, but just 98 or 99% Too much you say?

I think you all got a lot of damn nerve. I mean he is you. I guess you don’t like that he’s not BS-ing no. He’s outright lying. Are we going to get a replay of his greatest hits? I mean lies? 

My favorite was the one on Brazilian radio where he told them he got robbed on the street in New York. He said they took his wallet, his watch, his shoes …

Seus sapatos?

“Your shoes?” The radio guys asked.*

(*Sorry, I forgot you don’t speak Portuguese. I hope you don’t mind my translating it for you.)

And Santos realizing he had just been listing stuff and now realizing that it was too late to change the narrative had to stick with it. “Yeah, my shoes.”

Or Gordon Kleper jumping up and down at the fringe of a gaggle of reporters around Santos yelling in questions and demands, “We want to hear about your volleyball career!” (You know at the college he never attended.)

I’m outta here.

ps Now they’ve outted him. Not outted him as revealed that he was gay (we already knew that) but outted him as in “You’re out of here!” 

Why? I ask. Was it that he was a lying, cheating, stealing s.o.b.? Come on. Are you all? Well, most of you to some degree? Was it the brazenness?  Was it that he always lied, (like someone else we know who has a penchant for doing that?)

Was it that they have standards? Come on.

But now that you’ve done one, why not a few more?

I for some reason is that great scene in Casablanca where the French lieutenant is blowing the whistle for the place to be raided and he is given his winnings.

Ah me. No justice.