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| the wild abandonment of kittens to the power of a nap |
Tuesday, September 22, 2020
Saturday, September 19, 2020
Tuesday, Sept 8, 2020- Smoke and Fires, No Mirror Needed
(apologies for lack of continuity here)
Overwhelmed by the sadness of the smoke and fires.
22 days of Spare The Air alerts doesn't even begin to describe the constant presence of smoke and fire. It's like a deep winter season in a way, when snow and ice kept us housebound and indoors, only this is excessive heat and too much smoke. Exercise becomes an indoor activity: yoga or tai chi on a good day.
For others, the fires force them to flee, leave everything behind, stare into an uncertain future.
Woke today to an oppressively oily-yellow light, the sun a weak red disk behind a high screen of smoke from a fire somewhere else, perhaps the Wallbridge Fire flare-up that sparked evacuation orders again around Guerneville and Armstrong Woods State Park. Thick blankets of smoke, reminding us that fire has destroyed homes and lives and livelihoods elsewhere. I hear now that this smoke is from fires in Mendocino. There are or have been fires, I think, in every county in the North Bay, this past month. And now the Sierras are erupting in fire, with courageous helicopter rescues of flame-trapped hikers and firefighters and citizens of all stripes and ilk.
A visit to the National Weather Service Twitter page has me saddened beyond relief -- satellite views of the sea of smoke settling into the inland valleys. Insane waves created by the heat and wind. Historic wooden train trestle in Yakima, Washington a gridwork of flames. And Southern California not one whit better.
Thursday, September 17, 2020
Tuesday, September 15, 2020
Wednesday Sept 9 2020 - Drawing Cricles, Under Tangerine Skies
Drawing Circles - many of them, 170,000 of them, in fact, to try to understand what a number that big actually is. Calming, but with intent. There's a beauty in both the practice and the result, if drawn with focus and purpose. In John Green's podcast, The Anthropocene Reviewed, Episode # 24 he reviews The Works of Art of Agnes Martin and Hiroyuki Doi - she of the color fields and geometric grids and he of the many many circles. And then this response, which loops into the act of drawing, an attempt to understand the magnitude of a number like 170,000 -- which by now has reached 180,000 and for sure, will eclipse 200,000. That is, the number of folks in the US who have died from this pandemic. Each circle is a life, encircled by family, friends, work, projects, art.
Woke to weird tangerine skies, a thick layer of smoke held in place by fog above it and no wind to speak of. Not so hot today, but oppressive in spirit. Small flecks of grey-white ash drift down to sprinkle the tomato plants, coat the tables, obscure the views of hillsides and mountain. Thick enough on the cars to write "VOTE" on them, leaving fingertips black.
Meanwhile, others are fleeing their burning houses.
Monday, September 14, 2020
Monday, Sept 7, 2020 - A Labor Day with Postcards and pictures
Petaluma Postcard Pod and Petaluma Arts Center teamed up to send postcards to voters in Florida and Kansas with a Labor Day Postcard (Socially Distanced) Picnic. Great success, even under pink-tinted skies and high heat. Over 1,000 PAC postcards sent out to voters --whoooiee, mamas!
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| A Trio of Postcard Pod Wranglers: Nancy, Alice and Sue. |
Tuesday, September 8, 2020
Sept 6, 2020 - Sunday Statement
Thinking of these past six months, of 2020 in general.
I'm not able to concentrate, my attention is as scattered as spilled rice; I'm as jumpy as a cat on a hot tin roof. If it's not the specter of COVID-19, its the wildfires and the acres and acres of smoke that lid the sky, or the extreme heat that keeps us behind windows and doors. It's the wobbly state of our Democracy; it's the sense that danger lurks everywhere, seen or unseen. And yet the tomatoes ripen, the sunflowers burst open in praise of the sun, the little birds bathe in the water dishes with abandon and pleasure.
Perhaps this discordance is the hardest to bear.
Sept 5 & 7, 2020 - Military Woes for Benecdict Donald -- Veteren's Lives Matter, Too.
Stories from The Atlantic, "Trump: Americans Who Died at War are Losers and Suckers" by Jeffrey Goldsmith, on Sept 3, 2020
and the follow up Everyone knows its True by Robert Frum from Sept 7, 2020.
Pretty damning -- and depressing-- if you ask me.
Direct URLs if links above are broken.
- https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/09/everyone-knows-its-true/616138/
- https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2020/09/trump-americans-who-died-at-war-are-losers-and-suckers/615997/
- https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/04/us/politics/trump-military-vote-democrats.html
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/04/us/politics/biden-trump-soliders-insults.html
And this list of over 50 points and items, stolen from a Facebook post, shared by a friend.
As Frum states in his article, very few people from the military are defending him and even fewer people talk about any instances of kindness or campassion.
Why are troops turning away from Trump?........
Maybe because...
• In May 2020, the White House ended National Guard deployments one day before they could claim benefits
• The Trump admin seized 5 million masks intended for VA hospitals.
Kushner distributes these masks to private entities for a fee, who then
sells the masks to the government. ( I think that is technically called graft)
• Trump fired the captain of the USS Theodore Roosevelt after he warned
superiors that COVID19 was spreading among his crew. The virus
subsequently spread amongst the crew.
• After Iran's retaliatory strike, 109 US troops suffered brain injuries. Trump dismissed these as "headaches"
• On July 20, 2017, in room 2E924 of the Pentagon, Trump told a room full of Generals, "You’re a bunch of dopes and babies"
• Pardoned multiple war criminals, which stomped on long standing
military values, discipline, and command. Trump has no military
experience (May&Nov, 2019)
• Trump mocked Lt. Col. Vindman for his rank and uniform. He threatened
said purple heart officer, resulting in the Army providing him
protection
• Trump’s Chief of Staff worked—in secret—to deny comprehensive health coverage to Vietnam Vets who suffered from Agent Orange.
• There is a facility in Tijuana for US veterans that Trump deported.
Wounded war vet, Sen Duckworth (D) marked Veterans Day 2019 by visiting
this facility
• Russia took control of the main U.S. military facility in Syria
abandoned on Trump’s orders. Russia now owns the airstrip we built
• On Oct 7, 2019, Trump abruptly withdrew support from America's allies
in Syria after a phone call with Turkey's president (Erdogan). Turkey
subsequently bombed US Special Forces.
• Trump sent thousands of American troops to defend the oil assets of the country that perpetrated 9/11
• In Sept 2019, he made an Air Force cargo crew, flying from the U.S.
to Kuwait stop in Scotland (where there's no U.S. base) to refuel at a
commercial airport (where it costs more), so they could stay overnight
at a Trump property (which isn't close to the airport). Trump’s golf
courses are losing money, so he's forcing the military to pay for 5-star
nights there.
• In Sept, 2019, Pentagon pulled funds for military schools, military
housing funds, and daycare to pay for Trump's border wall.
• In Aug, 2019, emails revealed that three of Trump's Mar-a-Lago pals,
who are now running Veterans Affairs, are rampant with meddling. "They
had no experience in veterans affairs (none of them even served in the
military) nor underwent any kind of approval process to serve as de
facto managers. Yet, with Trump’s approval, they directed actions and
criticized operations without any oversight. They wasted valuable staff
time in hundreds of pages of communications and meetings, emails show.
Emails reveal disdainful attitudes within the department to the trio’s
meddling."
• Veterans graves will be "dug up" for the border wall, after Trump
instructed aides to seize private property. Trump told officials he
would pardon them if they break the law by illegally seizing property
• Children of deployed US troops are no longer guaranteed citizenship.
This includes US troops posted abroad for years at a time (August 28,
2019)
• On Aug 2, 2019, Trump requisitioned military retirement funds towards border wall
• On July 31, 2019, Trump ordered the Navy rescind medals to prosecutors who were prosecuted war criminals
• Trump denied a U.S. Marine of 6 years entry into the United States for his citizenship interview (Reported July 17, 2019)
• Trump made the U.S. Navy Blue Angels violate ethics rules by having
them fly at his July 4th political campaign event (July 4, 2019)
• Trump demanded US military chiefs stand next to him at 4th of July parade (reported July 2, 2019)
• In June, 2019, Trump sent troops to the border to paint the fence for a better "aesthetic appearance"
• Trump used his D-Day interview at a cemetery commemorating fallen US soldiers to attack a Vietnam veteran (June 6, 2019)
• Trump started his D-Day commemoration speech by attacking a private
citizen (Bette Midler, of all people) (reported on June 4th, 2019)
• Trump made his 2nd wife, Marla Maples, sign a prenup that would have
cut off all child support if Tiffany joined the military (reported June
4th, 2019)
• On May 27, 2019, Trump turned away US military from his Memorial Day
speech because they were from the destroyer USS John S. McCain
• Trump ordered the USS John McCain out of sight during his visit to
Japan (May 15, 2019). The ship's name was subsequently covered. (May 27,
2019)
• Trump purged 200,000 vets' healthcare applications (due to known
administrative errors within VA’s enrollment system) (reported on May
13, 2019)
• Trump deported a spouse of fallen Army soldier killed in Afghanistan, leaving their daughter parentless (April 16, 2019)
• On March 20, 2019, Trump complained that a deceased war hero didn't thank him for his funeral
• Between 12/22/2018, and 1/25/2019, Trump refused to sign his party's
funding bill, which shut down the government, forcing the Coast Guard to
go without pay, which made service members rely on food pantries.
However, his appointees got a $10,000 pay raise
• He banned service members from serving based on gender identity (1/22/2019)
• He denied female troops access to birth control to limit sexual activity (on-going. Published Jan 18, 2019)
• He tried to deport a marine vet who is a U.S.-born citizen (Jan 16, 2019)
• When a man was caught swindling veterans pensions for high-interest
“cash advances," Trump's Consumer Financial Protection Bureau fined him
$1 (Jan 26, 2019)
• He called a retired general a 'dog' with a 'big, dumb mouth' (Jan 1, 2019)
• He increased privatization of the VA, leading to longer waits and higher taxpayer cost (2018)
• He finally visited troops 2 years after taking office, but only after 154 vacation days at his properties (Dec 26, 2018)
• He revealed a covert Seal Team 5 deployment, including names and faces, on Twitter during his visit to Iraq (Dec 26, 2018)
• Trump lied to deployed troops that he gave them a 10% raise
(12/26/2018). He tried giving the military a raise that was lower than
the standard living adjustment. Congress told him that idea wasn't going
to work. Then after giving them the raise that Congress made him, he
lied about it pretending that it was larger than Obama's. It wasn't.
• He fired service members living with HIV just before the 2018 holidays
• He tried to slash disability and unemployment benefits for Veterans
to $0, and eliminate the unemployability extrascheduler rating (Dec 17,
2018)
• He called troops on Thanksgiving and told them he's most thankful for himself (Thanksgiving, 2018)
• He urged Florida to not count deployed military votes (Nov 12, 2018)
• He canceled an Arlington Cemetery visit on Veterans Day due to light rain (Nov 12, 2018)
• While in Europe commemorating the end of WWI, he didn't attend the
ceremony at a US cemetery due to the rain -- other world leaders went
anyway (Nov 10, 2018)
• He used troops as a political prop by sending them on a phantom
mission to the border and made them miss Thanksgiving with their
families (Oct-Dec, 2018)
• He stopped using troops as a political prop immediately after the
election. However, the troops remained in muddy camps on the border (Nov
7, 2018)
• Trump changed the GI Bill through his Forever GI Act, causing the VA
to miss veteran benefits, including housing allowances. This caused many
vets to run out of food and rent. (reported October 7, 2018)
• Trump doubled the rejection rate for veterans requesting family deportation protections (July 5, 2018)
• Trump deported active-duty spouses (11,800 military families face this problem as of April 2018)
• He forgot a fallen soldier's name (below) during a call to his
pregnant widow, then attacked her the next day (Oct 23-24, 2017)
• He sent commandos into an ambush due to a lack of intel, and sends
contractors to pick them up, resulting in a commando being left behind,
tortured, and executed. (Trump approved the mission because Bannon told
him Obama didn't have the guts to do it) (Oct 4, 2017)
• He blocked a veteran group on Twitter (June 2017)
• He ordered the discharge of active-duty immigrant troops with good records (2017-present)
• He deported veterans (2017-present)
• He said he knows more about ISIS than American generals (Oct 2016)
• On Oct 3, 2016, Trump said vets get PTSD because they aren't strong
(note: yes, he said it's 'because they aren't strong.' He didn't say
it's 'because they're weak.' This distinction is important because of
Snopes)
• Trump accepted a Purple Heart from a fan at one of his rallies and
said: “I always wanted to get the Purple Heart. This was much easier.”
(Aug 2, 2016)
• Trump attacks Gold Star families: Myeshia Johnson (gold star widow), Khan family (gold star parents) etc. (2016-present)
• Trump sent funds raised from a Jan 2016 veterans benefit to the
Donald J Trump Foundation instead of veterans charities (the foundation
has since been ordered shut because of fraud) (Jan, 2016)
• Trump said he has "more training militarily than a lot of the guys
that go into the military" because he went to a military-style academy
(2015 biography)
• Trump said he doesn't consider POWs heroes because they were caught.
He said he prefers people who were not caught (July 18, 2015)
• Trump said having unprotected sex was his own personal Vietnam (1998)
• For a decade, Trump sought to kick veterans off of Fifth Avenue
because he found them unsightly nuisances outside of Trump Tower. 1991
• Trump dodged the draft 5 times by having a doctor diagnose him with bone spurs.
• No Trump in America has ever served in the military; this spans 5
generations, and every branch of the family tree. In fact, the reason
his grandfather immigrated to America was to avoid military service.
Monday, September 7, 2020
August 30, 2020 - What We're Listening To, What We're Watching To Get Through
Took a very informal survey of a small group of buddies about how we're getting through this. Here's what we're watching and listening to:
TV -- to watch; shows, comedies, stand-up comedy. In the interest of keeping this list tangle-free, I'll let you folks do the googling to find them.
-
Better Things
- TV show, comedy, drama, Sam Fox, a single-mom with three kids in LA.
- Sebastian Mancuso — stand-up comedian
-
James Gaffigan
- stand-up comedian
- Mrs Maisel
- TV show about a comedian. Exuberant, set in the 50s and early 60s. Great cast, fast pace, dancing galore, keep an eye peeled for Suzie..
- Hannah Gadsby
- stand-up comedian
- Tig Natarao -both her standup comedy shows, but especially
One Mississippi, her 2-season show.
- Vera -- British Detective show at its best!
- Endeavor - prequel to Inspector Morse. So watchable!
-
California City - Podcast from LA List.
- Very Presidential by Ashley Flowers
- Ologies by Alie Ward \
- Fearology, Part 1 and 2 -- highly recommended
- Crime Junkies
- Invisibilia - early seasons are the best.
- The Moth
- This American
Life
- Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me
- Room Twenty Cold
- Everything is Fine
- Rumble Strip - (Vermont)
- GirlTrek
-
Ideas — CBC Radio Show
(anything from the Canadian Broadcast Corporation, right?)
Saturday, September 5, 2020
Sept 5, 2020 - Saturday
The start of another wave of heat for the Bay Area -- triple digits predicted inland, away from the water. Probably high 90's here, near San Pablo Bay. Maybe the 80's for San Francisco -- which is near the top for them. Over 100 in Petaluma?
Large orange moon last night, waning a few days from full looking like a deflating pumpkin, soft on one side, drooping about halfway up from the horizon. A faint smell of old campfires drifts through our open windows.
It' s funny how the body knows a hot day will be here and prods us awake not long after dawn to prowl and pad around in the bigger rooms, seeking
more water, seeking movement, as if it already knows a siesta is in the
works for the long hot afternoon. Best time to curl up with a New Yorker, that early morning hour of a hot day, when sleep evades us, when the couch calls, when kittens play with our feet and end up purring near our armpits. This is wha I read today - and I think it tucks up into one article some of the complexities of this past spring and summer, when pandemic and racism collided.
A Transit Worker's Survival Story
https://images.app.goo.gl/EcaUUkzJBdyHz8JE7
Sept 4, 2020 - Friday - One more for the books.
Listening to SFJAZZ at Five -- a short online concert posted by SFJAZZ from previous concerts, to kick off the weekend. Tonight Dee Dee Bridgewater is doodling all day, smoothing the edges of these anxious weeks with a voice like mellowed, triple-malt Scotch.
Took a trip into a yarn shop, this afternoon; oh my, so difficult to only look, not squish, fondle, twirl the ply, hold against the neck to test for softness. All sorts of lovely little project bags, many designed for tagging along with the knitter, where-ever they go, down the long hall from living room to TV room, for instance, or from inside knitting chair to patio, when the smoke clears -- which reminded me of the Japanese wrist bag I so admired many years ago and attempted to make. Hmmm.
Almost finished with a lovely soft gray cap -- to make this a Three Hat Pandemic. Not sure this will be the last, either.
Cool muted air comes in through the screens, a tinge of woodsmoke still. I don't think anyone is barbequeing, but ... maybe? More likely it s the
Drumpf and the media is making a big deal aboug Nancy Pelosi's hair cut? This is all Drumpf has on her -- the incident about her hair salon? If she was set up or not And what's with this Crazy Nancy business? Lying Donny can't be bothered to treat anyone with any kind of respect. It's all about the name calling. Like a five-year old. Just can't wait to get his big fat mouth locked up. Seriously.
I mean, really, this is someone to admire?
Sept 3, 2020 - Thursday - Thoughts While Walking Through a Very Quiet Campus
Haven't been on campus for months, more than six months, in fact. Have to make an appointment with SSU authorities, not just to get on campus, but to be scheduled to go to a particular building. Only ten people allowed in any one building at a time, to allow for good social distancing. Masks required, of course.
Felt so good to go somewhere and do something. Met with a friend and co-worker, who recalled coming to campus after the first few months of SIP to find the weeds chest-high, everything looking abandoned, like a ghost town. Today, the grounds keeping is back under control, the lawns mowed short and the garden areas at least pruned. But no one is strolling around, the parking lots have 20 cars in them apiece, the library is closed, cafes shuttered. Teachers come in one at at time to prepare for their online classes or grade or design and prepare labs and discussions to be done online. A few lab classes are being held in-person, ones that just can't be done at home. But most of the dorms are now shut down. Over the summer, some of the buildings housed quarantining patients and families; some of the homeless were housed here, too. But once the semester started, they couldn't keep all those populations in one location, so the homeless and quaranteeners had to go elsewhere.
Its's quiet, spooky, as I walk from my car to meet my friend and then walk off campus for coffee - large buildings, big grounds, few people. Lots of birds, little goldfinches emboldened to flit amongst the seedheads close to the path, ignoring the me. I'm the only one on the sidewalks. A Twilight Zone flavor to it.
Stephanie and I talk of our families, and the stresses, and the realities we all have to deal with, grandchildren, grown children, ailing parents. All the plans put on hold, the family hunkered around the house, sharing meals again, talking about the Viet Nam War era we parents lived through, the experiences of the returning war veterans, conscientious objectors, the protests that always held an edge of violence.
What we don't talk about: the craziness of this election, of the Tweeter-in-Chief. Of his behavior. How he belittles everyone because he has no other way to consider them. He knocks the police officers involved in the Jacob Blake shooting, calling them out for "choking" while firing at a man simply trying to close his car door -- as if the goal is to shoot to kill always, like a video game. He is signaling that it is okay for Americans to shoot to kill other Americans, he's laying the ground work for violence in the streets. This is a betrayal; it is the talk of a traitor to American ideals. (Even the Trumpian Apologist, Laura Ingraham who was interviewing him at the time, was shocked - she tried to give him a way out but Drumpf just doubled down, as if he didn't even understand or care how his words would be received.)
We can't wrap our heads around a President who states that a voter can send in a signed Absentee Ballot, i.e; voting by mail, and then go to the polls to vote -- again. Is this fella telling people to (illegally) vote twice because he's so clueless he doesn't understand what he's saying? Is he so inarticulate he can't explain what he means? Or is he trying to create so much confusion in the voting process that he can call it tainted and not abide by the decision, should he lose. Another traitorous action; he should be prosecuted.
We don't say it, but we think it: Lock Him Up. For a long, long time.
Going back to the pandemic, here's the argument for speaking softly and wearing a big mask, from the podcast Social Distance, posted on Weds Sept 2 2020 Why Herd Immunity Isn't A Strategy
Wednesday, September 2, 2020
Sept 2,2020 - Wednesday
The world is drenched in a pink light these days, sun filtered through the ash of woodsmoke, of fire along the coast, burning through the wooded canyons, the meadows of bunch grass, of oat grass, chasing the Tule elk to bellow against the waves, sending the elk to crash the cow-fences, gallop past blistered cars and firefighters in their thick yellow armor against flames and gasses and fury.
The pink light lingers over the green lawns for weeks, backlighting purple sages, tall yellow sunflowers in the afternoon. Apricot-tinted light in tree-shadows, in the corners behind the patio and lawn chairs. We don’t go out so much anymore.
The pink light of dawn shadows, the pinkish yellow light of the late afternoon, glazing the pepper tree, the big red ball of the sun sliding down behind the purple-hued hills. This is the burning world right now, drenched in flames, suffused with ash.
Tuesday, September 1, 2020
Sept 1, 2020 - Tuesday -
Trying to stay current on this blog is never-ending. I'm going to have to break chronologyand start a new trail from here, and fill in the past month or two as I have time and energy. Because I want to keep the record going, even if a fractured record.
Today has been a low-smoke day, at least here in Santa Venetia. Still, the sun set blood red and the full moon rose up orange and sulky.
Some fires are out, like the Meyers Fire in NW Sonoma County, others still rage on, though containment grows. The looming skies of smoke and ash has everyone spooked and skittish. Even the owls were squabbling in the trees last night. And then we know of the loss of home and hearth -- or of the disruptions of evacuations.
We are riding on rails of instability, no longer convinced they will hold. But we grip tight anyway, willing them to bend toward justice.
August 22, 2020, Saturday - Matt Herron Remembered
Matt Herron. Adventurer, explorer, champion. Who heard the call for "good trouble" and heeded it, knowing it would be neither easy nor always safe but still quite necessary.
He had stories to tell and told them well. He had that spirit of adventure, ready to meet any challenge. We didn't get to hear all the stories.
We met Matt and Jeannine Herron about a year ago, shortly after we moved across the street from them, out here in the marshland. He was always working on his glider, a flying machine folded into a slim canister-like trailer that covered the width of their house when parked along the curb. Which was whenever he wasn't flying it. But he flew it whenever he could.
We remembered our neighbor this Saturday by driving to China Camp and pulling over at a popular fishing and hangout spot, outfitted with a bench and a small tin pail labelled "put your butts here". The air was hazy, thick with brown-grey smoke from the Woodward Fire out in Pt Reyes that had been burning all week. We wore masks against the ash particulates as much as against Covid-19.
We tossed a bouquet of dahlias, sunflowers and purple sage wands into the waters of San Pablo Bay, knowing his equal affinity for water as for air, having sailed with his young family for a year and a half to Africa and back. And this was after he went to Mississippi with his cameras to photograph what became known as Freedom Summer. No lack of danger then, challenging the entrenched dulture, the authorities, the sheriffs.
His pictures of the Selma march stand as a testament to the uprisings against violent repression. Then there were the adventures with Green Peace, demanding that whaling ships obey the whaling treaties. He and Jeannine were warriors on the front lines. We were only just beginning to hear the stories -- and now his books and pictures stand as totems to a life lived challenging authority, challenging the structures of our culture. This is only a snapshot, a mere paragraph about a life as richly lived as one can imagine. I know I didn't capture it all -- but you can read more about him below - articles, discussions and books.
Books: Mississippi Eyes
The photographs and stories of five photojournalists in Mississippi documenting the fight for Civil Rights on several fronts.
A discussion of some of Matt's most well-known photos -- with images. You know some of these photos, I I'll wager. If not, now's as good a time as any to get familiar with them. Includes the distinction of who waved an American or a Confederate flag in the South, a relevant insight to today's struggles.
Two other books The Voyage of the Aquarius and the The Quilt: Stories from the Names Project, photographs by Matt Herron.
August 15 USPS Deliver De Mail Depose DeJoy
Unrest and unruliness about the changes imposed by the new U.S. Postmaster Louis DeJoy, a crony of the Orange-headed One. I just can't resist the title. But I am also dismayed at this attack on an institution that is an essential part of American life and culture. We will remember in November. You betcha.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-election-postal-service/protesters-slam-u-s-postmaster-outside-his-home-amid-mail-in-worries-idUSKCN25B0Z7
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