Month: May 2018

It is very easy to get distracted, and some of the most skilled distractors have been at work recently. But we must remember an old political truism that Douglas Adams so eloquently summarized: a President’s job is not to wield power, but to draw attention away from it.

There’s only one Trump scandal, but the news treats it like hundreds of little scandals. What are the hundreds or problems out in the world that we’re being misdirected away from?

“There are not many Trump scandals. There is one Trump scandal. Singular: the corruption of the American government by the president and his associates, who are using their official power for personal and financial gain rather than for the welfare of the American people, and their attempts to shield that corruption from political consequences, public scrutiny, or legal accountability.”
https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2018/05/there-is-only-one-trump-scandal/560825/

I don’t usually support the military, or their actions, but soldiers are another matter. Sometimes they don’t want to be fighting. Other times they are doing a job that both sides in our political system call for, and it is hard to hold the soldiers accountable. And when the system is unfair and needs reform, soldiers are often unable to step up as vocal participants in these movements, unfortunately due to many retaliatory reasons that keep their voices silent. The reasons soldiers are maligned are awful; the reason the military is maligned as an entity makes total sense.

My Grandfather and Great-Grandfather were both soldiers who were involved in big Wars: WWII and WWI, respectively. I never knew my Great-Grandfather, but my Grandfather was not defined by his military experience. I didn’t even know he was in the war for many years. But he was many things to many people at different times in his life, and it shouldn’t be surprising that there were unplumbed depths to his personality that I never got to know. I guess, more than anything, I just regret not being able to ask him about this.

I miss you Chet.

(Photos curtesy of Penelope Rich Bartsch.)

I know this may sound awful, but I have no sympathy for the kid. He’s getting off somewhat lightly, considering we lost that beautiful forest forever. And there’s this:

“The boy can set up a payment plan, though payments can be halted after 10 years as long as he complies, completes probation and doesn’t commit other crimes.”

So he’ll barely put a dent in that 30 million after 10 years. But maybe he’ll learn his lesson by having to make those payments forever if he commits another crime. Does that offset the animal life that was lost in the fire?

Sesame Street is so maudlin. The sounds have a ‘70s sadness to them, the lessons have a somber undercurrent. So much Kids culture of my childhood really has sadness as an element or undercurrent, and I don’t think it’s the nostalgia; the music is often minor key and downbeat. (Watership Down.) What was wrong with us? Everything I grew up with just fills me with sadness, but is presented as happy joyful cartoons. How did this happen?