Saturday Wrap Up

No silly, it's not fish 'n chips wrapped in newspaper. And who am I to presume to know what it all means? Well, sheeit, if that idiot Trump can run for an office he's supremely unqualified for, I can surely pontificate on the news. And yes, I just called you Shirley.

Our Parade of Bozos in Eastern Oregon

One of them, one of the oddest, actually, got his ass shot by Oregon State Troopers. I watched the video, watched the slo-mo, enlarged version furnished by the FBI (!), like many of you. Seems pretty clear to me he wasn't complying with the police, and when you've gone on record as being willing to die rather than be arrested, known to be carrying loaded weapons, what the hell do you expect when you take your hands down and reach for a coat pocket. I feel sorry for his family, but the guy was one of life's 'special people', and not in a good way.
 We still have 4 of the little dears holed up at the wildlife refuge, bemoaning the lack of pop tarts (I'm not making that up), increasing their unrealistic 'demands' day by day. What fantasy land do they live in? One wonders what the little spiders in their heads are telling them.

The Misogynist, Racist Idiot Who Would be President

Consider this:  When was the last time you heard a presidential candidate call a woman a 'bimbo' while on the campaign trail? Refuse to debate because he doesn't want to answer questions that are too hard? Calls questions that demand thought a 'gotcha' question? Well, here he is. And apparently there are those who walk among us who think he is qualified. Go figure. 

Flint Water

What's interesting to me about this is how little attention is being paid to what is a colossal issue: the poisoning of a large cities water through disinterest and incompetence. One reporter, Rachel Maddow, covered the story instead of the daily Trump News. BTW, this was the topic of an excellent post by Tom Cochrun on his blog Light Breezes.  

And some Local News

In Butte Montana it is commonly said that in 1918 Butte was the largest city between Seattle and Chicago. Is that really true? Opinions vary. In a recent article in the Montana Standard, local historian Dick Gibson concludes: 

"The bottom line is, we cannot be sure. There is no proper count of Butte’s people at the peak in 1917-1918. I am comfortable saying Butte reached “close to 100,000” in those years and was the largest city in the region from Minneapolis to Denver to Salt Lake City to Spokane, since Spokane — at 104,000 in 1910 — was almost certainly always larger than Butte. But I could be wrong!"

So there you have it, on this the evening of 30 January. Be careful, it's a jungle out there. 

Wednesday Lasagna

The oldest is off until tomorrow evening, and grandpa has the watch. Two teenagers, one 5 year old kindergartner. What could happen, right? One of his duties is dinner, what to do, what to do....Lasagna....haven't made it in years, but what the hell, it's like a bike right? I got some ground beef, italian sausage, onion, garlic, ricotta cheese, parmesan cheese, mozzarella cheese and started out. Poor Morgan, he does the dishes after dinner, and this one is a lot of prep.

An hour and 15 minutes later....

Still in the oven, but looks ok. Maybe memory muscle won out. We'll see what the East German judges say.  

Oh, and just heard a great quote from a UCLA polysci prof regarding the Trump vs. Fox kerfuffle..."It's an unprecedented race to the bottom." 

Says it all. 

A funny thing happened on the way to Seattle

It's odd how things can change on a dime, as the saying goes. One minute you're driving your truck along, whistling a tune (doubtful, I hate whistling), the next moment you're off to the side of the freeway, halfway to Seattle, wondering what made the loud 'clunk' under the truck, and why reverse and most forward gears don't work.

Now I sit in the lobby of a hotel, waiting for the dutiful oldest daughter to drive the 250 miles to pick up her stranded father. It's 6pm, and thus far the trip has, as the saying goes, exceeded expectations. Maybe 'exceeded' isn't exactly the word. I expect to get to Seattle around 2am.

Wednesday I'll be back over here, to finish the drive with a new transmission.

I'll see how the rest of this trip goes, I'm not ready to give up on it yet.

Super Sysygy

This month the planets will align across the galaxy. While not all that rare (it last occurred in '04), it might explain the occurrence of Trump, Carson and Cruz all in the same political arena. Hell, something supernatural has to be happening, right? 

Check it out, early morning of I believe the 20th. Get up before dawn, get your binoculars and report back.  

A message from the Unitarian Jihad

When we lived in the Bay Area, my routine in the morning was getting the San Francisco Chronicle and a cup of coffee, sitting and starting with Jon Carroll's column. When the internet came along and my office got it's first computer, I'd repeat the process except going to the website. Then a year or so ago the Chron went pay to view. For some reason, I didn't subscribe, and now rarely see the paper or his excellent column. This is a reprint from April, 2005. Enjoy.

The following is the first communique from a group calling itself Unitarian Jihad. It was sent to me at The Chronicle via an anonymous spam remailer. I have no idea whether other news organizations have received this communique, and, if so, why they have not chosen to print it. Perhaps they fear starting a panic. I feel strongly that the truth, no matter how alarming, trivial or disgusting, must always be told. I am pleased to report that the words below are at least not disgusting:

Greetings to the Imprisoned Citizens of the United States. We are Unitarian Jihad. There is only God, unless there is more than one God. The vote of our God subcommittee is 10-8 in favor of one God, with two abstentions. Brother Flaming Sword of Moderation noted the possibility of there being no God at all, and his objection was noted with love by the secretary.

Greetings to the Imprisoned Citizens of the United States! Too long has your attention been waylaid by the bright baubles of extremist thought. Too long have fundamentalist yahoos of all religions (except Buddhism -- 14-5 vote, no abstentions, fundamentalism subcommittee) made your head hurt. Too long have you been buffeted by angry people who think that God talks to them. You have a right to your moderation! You have the power to be calm! We will use the IED of truth to explode the SUV of dogmatic expression!

People of the United States, why is everyone yelling at you??? Whatever happened to ... you know, everything? Why is the news dominated by nutballs saying that the Ten Commandments have to be tattooed inside the eyelids of every American, or that Allah has told them to kill Americans in order to rid the world of Satan, or that Yahweh has instructed them to go live wherever they feel like, or that Shiva thinks bombing mosques is a great idea? Sister Immaculate Dagger of Peace notes for the record that we mean no disrespect to Jews, Muslims, Christians or Hindus. Referred back to the committee of the whole for further discussion.

We are Unitarian Jihad. We are everywhere. We have not been born again, nor have we sworn a blood oath. We do not think that God cares what we read, what we eat or whom we sleep with. Brother Neutron Bomb of Serenity notes for the record that he does not have a moral code but is nevertheless a good person, and Unexalted Leader Garrote of Forgiveness stipulates that Brother Neutron Bomb of Serenity is a good person, and this is to be reflected in the minutes.

Beware! Unless you people shut up and begin acting like grown-ups with brains enough to understand the difference between political belief and personal faith, the Unitarian Jihad will begin a series of terrorist-like actions. We will take over television studios, kidnap so-called commentators and broadcast calm, well-reasoned discussions of the issues of the day. We will not try for "balance" by hiring fruitcakes; we will try for balance by hiring non-ideologues who have carefully thought through the issues.

We are Unitarian Jihad. We will appear in public places and require people to shake hands with each other. (Sister Hand Grenade of Love suggested that we institute a terror regime of mandatory hugging, but her motion was not formally introduced because of lack of a quorum.) We will require all lobbyists, spokesmen and campaign managers to dress like trout in public. Televangelists will be forced to take jobs as Xerox repair specialists. Demagogues of all stripes will be required to read Proust out loud in prisons.

We are Unitarian Jihad, and our motto is: "Sincerity is not enough." We have heard from enough sincere people to last a lifetime already. Just because you believe it's true doesn't make it true. Just because your motives are pure doesn't mean you are not doing harm. Get a dog, or comfort someone in a nursing home, or just feed the birds in the park. Play basketball. Lighten up. The world is not out to get you, except in the sense that the world is out to get everyone.

Brother Gatling Gun of Patience notes that he's pretty sure the world is out to get him because everyone laughs when he says he is a Unitarian. There were murmurs of assent around the room, and someone suggested that we buy some Congressmembers and really stick it to the Baptists. But this was deemed against Revolutionary Principles, and Brother Gatling Gun of Patience was remanded to the Sunday Flowers and Banners committee.

People of the United States! We are Unitarian Jihad! We can strike without warning. Pockets of reasonableness and harmony will appear as if from nowhere! Nice people will run the government again! There will be coffee and cookies in the Gandhi Room after the revolution.

---

Startling new underground group spreads lack of panic! Citizens declare themselves "relatively unafraid" of threats of undeclared rationality. People can still go to France, terrorist leader says.

We've strayed from the pack here

It hasn't escaped your attention that in many locales the police are not being well thought of, people are suspicious. But not here, not in my little hometown:

Butte woman faces disorderly charge after allegedly trying to kiss police officer

(redacted) admitted to police that she had been drinking a lot of alcohol.

A interim post, whilst we wait.....

The rivers here in winter....some of them in the western part of the state remain ice-free all winter. Other's, in the central or eastern part of the state can ice up mostly, partially, or in places over.

I encourage you to enlarge it, it's a nice picture. We've had now two days of 'nice' weather, highs in the 20's, people frolicking in the streets, etc. 

I see the Paiute's are getting irritated by the white militants taking over the federal offices in the Malheur, a quote from a tribal leader:

 'They just need to get the hell out of here," said Jarvis Kennedy, a member of the tribal council. "They didn't ask anybody, we don't want them here...our little kids are sitting at home when they should be in school."

A bit of current events

First, the kerfuffle in eastern Oregon, in the Malheur. Ok, this place is rather rural, as in capital R. Out there. Been there more than a few times. French Glen is a favorite place.

French Glen in 1904, not much has changed. 

So, we got some bozo's from Nevada and other places, wanting to take over a government building, with arms. Armed. 

Two of them, with arms, looking from a lookout in the reserve.

And, outside the gate, where local and government spokesmen are saying little, except that there will be not real response immediately. No movement against them. 

What if.....play this game, ok? What if they were not older white dudes, pickups, etc. What if they were perhaps....black? 

My, imagine that scenario.......

Or, god forbid, they might be Muslim....

Sure, they might be born in the US, but man, with clear evidence of them wearing clothes like this....

Instead, Let's look backward a bit, to a similar time. 1903-10, the beginnings of the United States Forest Service. The issue of contention then were the same as they are now: who owns the land? who controls what happens on the land? 

When Roosevelt made a reality of the USFS, individuals were selected to be regional foresters, that is, designate the boundary of the National Forest, and what could happen within the boundaries, such as grazing rights.  TR gave the new forest rangers advise. "They can use the forest, but not use it up." 

The original forest rangers mapped out the boundaries, studied the ranging practices, gambled, and made rulings. Some of them worked, some not so well. But they they all worked on TR's words....'but not use it up.' 

There were times that ranchers, farmers, loggers picked up arms, and resisted. What happened then? They talked, they compromised, and no one was killed. 

Now here we are, again. We have 'militia' from Nevada and other places, to 'help'. Knowing full well that in the history of Ruby Ridge, the feds cannot respond as they would, if they were any other than they are: white, middle age to elderly men. 

Let's just imagine what what would be happening were these assholes, some one else. 

What if they were African-American? 

Hispanic?

Middle eastern?

Cheers, 

Mike

Off to a nippy start

                                                                                           RIGHT NOW

                     -19°

                                                                                              Few Cloud

I awoke briefly at somewhere around midnight to hear the obligatory rifle being fired into the air, some local thinking he was in Beirut, but slept until MTPR came on at 6. 

The day will be spent reading a recent Guy de la Valdene book lent by a friend, perhaps some football, and likely a nap this afternoon. 

Happy new year all.