Emergency Response

There may be no time that offers a better window into the character of an individual, a leader, an organization, or a nation, than how they respond to an emergency.  

It has been so gratifying to see communities around southern California, northern California, and throughout the west, from Oregon and Washington to Utah, and as far east as Houston Texas, respond to the tragic wildfires in Los Angeles in the spirit of shared humanity, and instinctive sacrifice and heroism.  Resources from Canada, Mexico, and other nations have likewise joined the effort to ease the loss, and make these communities whole once again.  Even Ukraine has offered to share from their hard-pressed resources to pay back a people they feel have done so much to protect them..  

I have nothing but admiration for these men and women.  

Then there are those who sit on the sidelines, contributing nothing, yet mercilessly critiquing those who help.  They are like middle-aged football fans, who scream insults at their televisions, when an elite athlete can't quite haul in a down-field pass, then grunt like a swine as they haul their lard-asses out of their appropriately-named Lazy-Boys, to trudge off to the fridge for yet another beer.  

Teddy Roosevelt spoke of these folks, and their shallow, lazy, meaningless critiques of 'doers' in his short piece, 'The Man in the Arena'

The Man in the Arena

2024 for the WIN!!!

The year 2024 is now on record as the hottest year on record.  

It was neck and neck going into the final month, but 2024 edged out 2023 by a nose.  

I don't know what the Las Vegas betting line was, but those who placed their money on 2024 hit pay dirt.  

In the sporting world, they say 'records are meant to be broken' - and for better or worse, I think this one will be moved off the podium before long.  

Like most people, I'm tired of seeing this same news from NASA year after year.  In an ironic sense, then, it will please many that NASA is likely to stop sharing this news for a few years now.  I mean, why bother people with facts and data and stuff.  

For those few nerds, who want to see behind the curtain, we have (for now at least) these further underlying data.  But we are likely to soon be less troubled by this annual release as well, and will be able to continue on our blissful way, without all the conflict and confusion these generate.  

NOAA historic data

Cult Discipline

Trump could have pulled the plug on the bipartisan, bicameral short-term budget agreement well before negotiations were complete.  

So why didn't he?  

By waiting, and letting everybody involved think they had reached a deal, he was able to demonstrate his power when he quashed it.  

This wasn't a lesson for the Democrats; it was a discipline lesson for Republicans, showing just how little freedom of action they now have.  Humiliating them, including house speaker Mike Johnson, reinforces that he alone is in charge, and they should do nothing but follow his orders, and must be ready to meekly change direction immediately when his whims change.  

This defines a key early stage of an emerging dictatorship.  And he will make an example of that handful of Republicans who dared to defy him.  

Welcome to the future.   

The Reckoning

 An opportunity for reflection; author unknown, but shared by my friend John Ross.  

As we read this, and see the author's accusing finger pointer at the guilty and the gullible, it is worth remembering that, though he won a plurality of the votes this year, he did not win a majority - so over half of voters chose somebody else.  For whatever solace that offers, this may not apply to you; but we will all experience the consequences nonetheless.   

The Reckoning-

I cannot let this day slip by

without shouting into the void of my disappointment.

The charges are gone, swept like dust under a gilded rug,

and yet the truth remains, burning:

He was guilty.

You know it.

I know it.

The weight of it presses against my chest,

how a man so stained could hold the reins again.

He ran for power to shield himself,

a crown to escape the scales of justice.

He will pardon himself,

stand smug on the green of manicured lies,

a golf swing on our dime,

while we watch,

while we ache.

Do you remember?

He told them to march.

I saw it.

I was there, and the echoes of that day

still ricochet in my mind.

I will not forget.

I will not forgive.

Not the man who lit the match,

nor the hands that handed him the flame.

You who cast your vote,

for cheaper gas, for eggs, for promises spun from deceit,

or worse—

you, who saw the ugliness and shrugged.

He is a bigot, and it didn’t stop you.

He is cruel, and you let it slide.

You looked away, silent, complicit.

And in that silence, the cracks widened.

The grave error was yours,

but I do not have the breath left

to plead with you to see.

I will watch as it unfolds,

as the curtain lifts on this tragedy we have built,

brick by brick, with our denial.

And when the moment arrives—

when the mask slips and the monster stands revealed—

it will be too late.

Do you see the bodies yet?

The ones already fallen,

the ones to come?

They are part of the price,

written in the fine print of your choices.

There is no blanket thick enough to hide under now,

no silence deep enough to escape the echo of what is coming.

None of us will walk away unscathed.

Not even you.

Author Unknown

Trump's Quest for Power

It is foolish to believe that people's views can be changed by a post on social media; certainly not late in a contentious election cycle.   Persuasion or not, though, sometimes we just need to scream into the abyss at the ludicrous place in which we find ourselves.  

The margins of conceivable victory in the presidential race are razor thin.  But whichever candidate prevails, substantial damage has been done to our national reputation.  Our nation will have to live with the infamy that Donald Trump is even taken seriously.  

Donald Trump is utterly unqualified to be president; he lacks the intellect, temperament, experience, and judgment, evidencing not a trace of the self-awareness of his shortcomings.  Eight years ago, all he had was name recognition, from a lifetime of high-visibility marriages, and divorces, and high-visibility real estate projects, many of which ended in bankruptcy - and finally, a stupid game-show.  But people were somehow ready to at least imagine that he could function as president, and develop the skills and bearing befitting that station.  

But that was not to be.  Instead of growing into the office, he shrunk the presidency to match himself. Once he attained the power he sought, he wielded it ruthlessly ... dictatorially.  Then, at the end of his term, when he was voted out of office, he took the dictator's approach of denial, lying, and suborning a violent insurrection, in order to remain in place.  For the first time in US history, we had a sitting president subverting the peaceful transfer of power.  

His dictatorial leadership alienated the best of the people he could attract into his administration--people who had experience, and knowledge of how our system is supposed to work--many of whom are appalled at the prospect of him regaining power.  These outspoken opponents include secretaries of state, national security advisers, military branch chiefs of staff, and even his vice president.  

Never before in our history has such a collection of alumni stood in opposition to their former commander-in-chief.

His bullying was as outlandish internationally as it was domestically.  While in office, he disparaged and alienated our partners in international alliances that have helped maintain peace and stability--and resolve crises--in Europe and east Asia for decades.  Instead, he cultivated personal alliances with many of the most dangerous dictators in the world, most prominently Vladamir Putin - who stands to benefit most from the collapse of the NATO alliance.  Trump extorted the beleaguered Ukrainian president; threatening to cut off military aid, unless Ukraine fabricated and released damaging information against Trump's presumed opponent.  

As he cultivates his alliances with these dictators, he has repeatedly spoken enviously of the unitary power they exercise in their countries - expanding that admiration to include the worst dictators from recent history, including Adolf Hitler.  

Four years after losing his bid for re-election, he still maintains, and his knuckle-dragging cult still believes, the totally debunked fantasy that he won the 2000 election, and was robbed of his second term.  

He is prepared to repeat, and expand upon the worst abuses of his first term, if given another chance.  His abuse of the most vulnerable members of our society; racial, religious, and other ethnic minorities, our LGBTQ+ neighbors, immigrants ... anybody who he can single out and 'other' in the narrow minds of his core constituency.  He makes no pretense of decency when mocking them; fabricating and amplifying toxic slanders - such as the claim that refugees are stealing and eating the dogs in neighborhoods where they live, or that 'woke' schools are surgically changing the sex of children without their knowledge.  These stories would be horrific enough, if shared as jokes.  But, because he insists that his cult listen only to his 'truth', and ignore all other sources of information, the most credulous among them believe that these are true.  

The world waits anxiously to know whether, for the next four years, the United States will be a force for stability and peace, or whether they will face a world in which both a dictatorial United States, and Putin's expanding, dictatorial Russia will use their combined strength and corruption to dominate the rest of the world.  Whichever it is, nobody can escape the sad fact that it is this close.  

Paxton and Fugitive Exercise of Rights

In a move that smacks of nothing so much as the 1850 Fugitive Slave Act, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is seeking to extend his power of repression, and violation of personal freedom and privacy beyond his state's lines.  

Paxton HIPAA Interstate Violation

Paxton is utterly shameless in his constant search for distractions from his own prodigiously corrupt record.  

Answering Hate with Love

I flipped on the TeeVee a couple minutes ago, and the Olympics closing ceremonies were on.  As the athletes marched out, one of the first images I saw was Imane Khelif, the gold-medal winning Algerian  boxer.  As she passed the camera, she kissed her gold medal, and smiled sweetly at the camera.  

That's beautiful!  This talented young woman, who had become the target of the most hateful expressions of misogyny, from the foulest sectors of American society, responded with gentle love and humor.   

You go girl!  Knock 'em down for the count!