#241 / Mother Nature On The Run

 

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Among the many salutes to Dolly Parton, gone too soon this past August 25th, at eighty years old, was this exchange between Bret Stephens and Frank Bruni, appearing at the end of "The Conversation," published by The New York Times on August 28th:

Bret: Bringing us to the most important, and by far the saddest, news of the week. I’m struck by how hard the news of her death hit me. I remember, as a kid, watching “9 to 5” in a theater and falling for the force of her personality. But it was only when I had kids of my own — particularly my daughters, who are into country music — that I really began to love the songs, like “Jolene” and “Coat of Many Colors,” not just for their musicality but also for their emotional honesty and depth. Also, if you’ve never heard it, watch Parton, with Emmylou Harris and Linda Ronstadt, cover Neil Young’s “After the Gold Rush,” in this 1999 performance on “Late Show With David Letterman.” It’ll bring you to tears. 

Frank: Oh, I’ve heard it. Seen it. Misted up during it. But to me and many others, Dolly Parton was so much more than music and movies. What I perhaps appreciated most about her, Bret, was this: I had no idea what her politics were. I barely had guesses. And while keeping them opaque obviously worked to her commercial advantage, minimizing the possibility that she’d anger and estrange any fans, it came to seem a kind of moral statement: We can have pockets of space and periods of grace in which we savor a shared pleasure and put our differences and our rancor on pause. Her performances were that pause, that space, that grace.

Like Bret Stephens, I invite you to click the link to the 1999 performance with David Letterman. Until the column in The Times, I had never heard about (or ever heard) "After The Gold Rush," but that song, as sung by Dolly Parton, Linda Ronstadt, and Emmylou Harris, may well, as Stephens predicted, bring you to tears. If you would like to read the lyrics, You can click this link, right here. 

As I listened to "After The Gold Rush," with its California reference, I was struck by this verse: 

Look at Mother Nature on the run
In the nineteen seventies
Look at Mother Nature on the run
In the nineteen seventies

 

Is Mother Nature still "on the run," as she was when I was first elected to the Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors, in 1974? She should be, of course, she should be running as fast as she can from what's coming for her now, but it could just be (I hate even to think it) that Mother Nature has lost that race, and has been trampled down, defeated, since her valiant run in the seventies. 

I hate to think that.  

The horrendous destruction in Nepal, caused by the global warming that everyone seems to be doing their best to ignore, indicates that it is all of humanity, now, that is "on the run," or should be - and should be recognizing that this is us in our final, desperate stretch, still pulling as hard as we can to outrun disaster and allow our human creations to survive. The video of the disaster in Nepal shows people running. 

We need to run - but I don't think we need to run away; we need to run towards the problems coming for us, and face them, and do what we can.

Dolly Parton, who is properly revered, and who will truly be missed, had the kind of beautiful voice that gave a hint of her beautiful soul. I think she would approve this message.

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EHzWhi86vAc

#240 / That Sumerian Solution

 

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The U.S. federal debt has hit $40 trillion. Add the debt owed by U.S. states, corporations and consumers, and the figure rises to about $77 trillion in debt, set against an annual gross domestic product of about $32 trillion. The interest on all of it is compounding constantly. It’s not just the United States, either. Globally, there is $350 trillion in debt, roughly treble global G.D.P. It’s like snowpack on a mountainside. It may look stable right now, but it’s creating the conditions for an avalanche. We are past the point where we can deal with our current debts in normal ways. The options open to us are extremely unlikely or highly destructive: Grow our way out of it, raise taxes, inflate the debt away or wait for the economic fallout.

The quotation above, from a New York Times opinion piece, might be called the "problem statement." Does anyone disagree that our national debt is a real problem? The excerpt I have quoted comes from a Times column by Paul Vigna, managing editor of American Banker. Similar concerns are being voiced in an article from The Atlantic: "Economists Who Weren’t Worried About the Debt Are Now Panicking."  

As the quotation from Vigna says, it's getting harder and harder to believe that we can deal with our debt in "normal ways." So, what does Vigna suggest? Vigna suggests the "Sumerian Solution." 

Ancient societies had another method to deal with debt. It was called an amargi — a blanket declaration of public debt cancellation. All public debts written off. Disappeared. It sounds laughable, I know. But, really, that’s just because the idea has been buried so deeply in history that you’ve probably never heard of it. In the ancient world, it presented a pragmatic solution to an intractable problem. And now, faced with impossible-to-repay debts that are weighing down our economy, is the time to look at the amargi and the lessons it offers about how to think about finance.

I do not mind being called a "radical," particularly if that means being a "radical thinker." As those who read my blog postings know, I claim "possibility" as "my category."

I think we had all better start being willing to consider possibilities we never thought of before - never even heard of before; never thought might be something that could actually be accomplished. Unsupportable debt is only one of the things we need to start thinking about. Only one, but it's right up there on the list. 

Like John Lennon sang, we need to start thinking about possibilities we have never, ever, really considered or contemplated. Really! "Imagine!"

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https://www.nytimes.com/2026/08/22/opinion/us-debt-40-trillion.html

#239 / Global Citizens

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My blog posting yesterday was about fires in Canada, and it was trying to make a point. The realities of our world, today, are not best understood through a "nationalistic" lens. We are, in fact, "global citizens." We're "in this together," as I so often put it, and that "we" I am talking about includes everyone in the entire world. 

One day after I wrote out that blog posting published yesterday, I found the picture above, linked to a July 17, 2026, article in the San Francisco Chronicle. The Chronicle article was a celebration of the World Cup soccer matches then just about to come to a conclusion with the finals match between Spain and Argentina set for July 19th (Spain won). The article was headlined this way: "What the World Cup taught me and family about about being global citizens."

The exuberance of the picture drew me in. It makes that message about our global connection clear, through its moving depiction of Curaçao fans — many chanting, “Bai Kòrsou! Bai Kòrsou!” (go Curaçao) — as those Curaçao fans cheered for their team in a World Cup match against the Ivory Coast played in Philadelphia on June 25.

Yesterday's blog posting was to make a point. Today's blog posting is to make a wish. 

May we all find genuine joy in the truth that we are all together, here on Planet Earth, and be filled not with competitive anger and hatred (unfortunately seen, all too often, in the current leaders of our nation), but filled, instead, with the profoundly wonderful reality of our human connections, around the globe. 

There is so much to celebrate! And so much work to do - together!

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https://www.sfchronicle.com/opinion/openforum/article/world-cup-soccer-family-22347760.php

#238 / Canadian Fires?

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The image above depicts where fires were burning in Canada in the middle of July. Most of the fires were designated as "out of control." The picture below, from the July 17, 2026, edition of The Wall Street Journal, shows air quality conditions in New York City on Thursday, July 16th. 

When I started reading my copy of The Journal, picked up off my front walkway on that Thursday, and when I saw a front page picture pretty much identical to the picture above, though cropped differently, I immediately noted the headline: "Canadian Fires Cast Pall Over Wide Swath Of U.S." The online version of the story uses a different headline, but again designates the fires that are being written about as "Canadian." 

You know, the wildfires that were causing the massive air pollution depicted in the photo aren't really, in my opinion, properly called "Canadian" wildfires. As the graphic demonstrates, lots of wildfires were (and are) burning in Canada, but is it really correct - or "fair" - to designate them, specifically, as "Canadian"?

I don't think so.

The forests of the entire world are on fire, from deep in the Amazon, to California, to Alaska, and everywhere else around the globe. These fires are directly related to the ever more out of control global warming that is putting life on Earth in peril. The headline in the paper, accompanying the dramatic photograph, might cause many to think that it's "other people" who are responsible. In fact, we are ALL implicated. The following link will get you to a chart from Wikipedia that shows worldwide carbon dioxide emissions, and relates them to the various nations of the world. 

It is time to reorient our human activities - worldwide - and most emphatically including right here in the United States of America.

We are running out of time! What that picture shows, and what that chart shows, is what's really going on, everywhere in the world. We need to STOP BURNING FOSSIL FUELS. 

PERIOD! AS QUICKLY AS WE CAN! 

NO FURTHER EXCUSES ACCEPTED!

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(1) - https://www.fox2detroit.com/news/where-canada-wildfires-burning

(2) - https://www.wsj.com/us-news/climate-environment/canadian-wildfire-smoke-blankets-u-s-northeast-and-midwest-ace90b6a

#237 / What Or Who Do You Pay?

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I like George Monbiot, who writes for The Guardian, and here is something he said in an opinion piece published on April 23, 2026 (emphasis added): 

The poor and middle pay taxes, the rich pay accountants, the very rich pay lawyers – and the ultra-rich pay politicians. It’s not an original remark, but it bears repeating until everyone has heard it. The more money billionaires accumulate, the greater their control of the political system – which means they pay less tax, which means they accumulate more, which means their control intensifies. 

One of the symptoms of the pathology known as “billionaire brain” is an inability to see beyond their own short-term gain. They would sack the planet for a few more stones on the pointless mountain of wealth. And we can see it happening. Last week delivered the biggest news of the year so far, perhaps the biggest news of the century. But partly because billionaires own most of the media, most people never heard it. We might find ourselves committed to a civilisation-ending event before we even learn that such a thing is possible.

 

The real message of Monbiot's opinion column, in other words, is captured in Monbiot's headline: 

A Catastrophic Climate Event Is Upon Us. Here Is Why You’ve Heard So Little About It

If you don't immediately know from this headline what Monbiot must be talking about, please take a few minutes to read his entire column. What Monbiot is talking about is a crucial oceanic circulation system known as the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC). This is the main ocean current system in the Atlantic Ocean, and it plays an important role in the climate system. I have written about the AMOC before, and here's a bit of what Monbiot has to say about it:

The Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) – delivers heat from the tropics to the North Atlantic. Recent research suggests that if it shuts down, it could cause both a massive drop in average winter temperatures in northern Europe and drastic changes in the Amazon’s water cycles. This could help tip the rainforest into cascading collapse and trigger further disaster. 

AMOC's shutdown is likely also to cause an acceleration of sea level rise on the east coast of the US, threatening cities. It could also raise Antarctic temperatures by roughly 6C and release a vast pulse of carbon currently stored in the Southern Ocean, accelerating our ongoing climate catastrophe. 

Even when the countervailing effects of generalised global heating are taken into account, a further paper proposes, the net impact in northern Europe would be periods of extreme cold – including events in which temperatures in London fall to -19C, in Edinburgh to -30C and in Oslo to -48C. Sea ice in February would extend as far as Lincolnshire. Our climate would change drastically, with the likelihood of far greater extremes, such as massive winter storms. Rain-fed arable agriculture would become impossible almost everywhere in the UK. 

This shift, on any realistic human scale, would be irreversible. Its speed is likely to outrun our ability to adapt. Amoc shutdowns, driven by natural climate variability, have happened before. But not in the era of large-scale human civilisation. 

The first paper proposing that AMOC might have an on-state and an off-state was published in 1961. Since then, many studies have confirmed the finding and explored potential triggers and likely implications. Until recently, AMOC collapse caused by human activity fell into the category of a “high impact, low probability” event, devastating if it happens, but unlikely to occur. Research over the past few years prompted a reassessment: it began to look more like a “high impact, high probability” event. Now, in response to last week’s paper, Prof Stefan Rahmstorf – perhaps the world’s leading authority on the subject – says the chances of a shutdown look like “more than 50%”. We could pass the tipping point, he says, “in the middle of this century.”

The reason that democratic self-government is the only political system worth having is the fact that so-called "political" decisions have life and death impacts which affect all of us - everyone in the world. In other words, spending our time and money on "politics," instead of letting the billionaires make all the decisions, is to our immense, personal advantage - and that is why it is so important. 

This is not the first time I have made this point.

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https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/apr/23/catastrophic-climate-event-scientists-atlantic-system-collapse-billionaire-existential-crisis?CMP=opinionus_email

#236 / So Many People: Why?

  

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The June 2026 edition of The Nation magazine included an article by Alex Shams. Shams' article was titled as follows: "Why Did So Many People Think This War Was A Good Idea?" The war referred to, initiated by our current president, is the War in Iran.

Shams' article is well worth reading, and focuses on support for the war inside Iran, and support from those Iranians living outside Iran. The article begins with a short summary of what the reader is going to be told. Here is what Shams says by way of his introduction to the article: "The story of how millions of Iranians fell for the regime-change fantasy." 

To let you in on at least one explanation advanced by Shams, many Iranians, both inside and outside Iran, apparently put a lot of faith in the guy who started the war, thinking that he truly was, as he has always claimed to be, really smart, and that he could certainly pull it all off. Hearing this, you probably don't immediately think of the following line from Bob Dylan, but I do (click the link for the lyrics to "Bob Dylan's 115th Dream"): 

I just said, "Good luck"

I will let anyone who becomes interested in the question addressed in this blog posting read the Shams' article themselves (I hope it will be available to non-subscribers). Here's the thought that I want to advance, both with specific reference to the War in Iran and with respect to war more generally (emphasis added): 

There was little discussion of how exactly military strikes would lead to the collapse of Iran’s government. But the possibility raised unrealistic expectations inside Iran. To millions of people still reeling from January’s mass killings, it offered a fantasy that the US could swoop in, remove the government, and replace it with something else—without touching the Iranian people. 

Almost overnight, Iranians who spoke out against war were accused of being “apologists” for the government. 

“Where were you when they massacred 40,000 people in January?” was one frequent refrain. (While the number of people killed in the crackdowns has been extensively debated, the reality is believed to be closer to a still-appalling 7,000 people.) 

“War will kill fewer people than the regime, so it will save lives in the long term. It’s simple math” was another. 

“What’s your alternative?” was yet a third. 

A quieter chorus warned against the lure of war. “We stand for peace,” Masoud Nikzadi, a historian in Tehran, wrote on Instagram. “We don’t need to explain a plan for why peace is necessary. Those who support war must explain how exactly it will bring freedom.” 

A collective of women from the Baloch minority, formed during the 2022 Woman Life Freedom protests, warned: “War should not be sold as an opportunity to people under oppression. Militarization…leads to social collapse and disintegration, just as happened in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, and Syria.” 

But these voices in Iran, lacking large social-media platforms, were drowned out by influencers and celebrities abroad, whose message was embraced by those within the country. 

 George Orwell got it right a long time ago.  "War" is NOT "Peace." And we don't achieve "peace" by pursuing "war."

Wouldn't it be great if we had a president who understood this fact?

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https://www.thenation.com/article/world/iran-regime-change-fantasy/

#235 / Do You Want To Live To Be 100?

 

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The New York Times is interested in hearing your thoughts about getting to live to be 100. Sound good? Or... do you have another thought? Here's the link, if you'd like to let The Times know what you think. Here's what I think:

I will be 83 years old on the day after Christmas, this year, and I have had a pretty significant and wonderful life. For twenty years, from 1975 to 1995, I served as an elected member of the Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors, during a time of tumultuous politics in our local community. I was, in other words, elected five times in a row, retiring when I was fifty. At the end of 1999, the local newspaper (which never supported me politically) said that I was one of two people who had the most significant impact on Santa Cruz County during the 20th Century. That might actually be true! 

I went on to head up both a local and a statewide nonprofit corporation, both of them dedicated to the protection of California’s environment, and I taught for fourteen years in the Legal Studies Program at the University of California, Santa Cruz. For the last sixteen years, I have published this daily blog, called, “We Live In A Political World.” I have never missed a day!  My ideas about personal fulfilment (which The Times did want to hear about) do look a bit different now, from my current perspective, than they used to look when I was younger. Much more than I did before, I understand what a gift and a blessing it is to have been alive – and to be alive now. In a very real way, I now “Fear Not.” That is a change. 

Do I strive to live to be 100? I’d be glad to get there, but I am absolutely at peace with the reality of death, and my understanding of life is now more by way of celebration than striving. I have been married to a wonderful wife for fifty-seven years and have two children in their fifties - plus three grandchildren. Both my daughter and son, particularly, have helped me “appreciate,” not “strive,” as I look to the future adventures yet to come.

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https://www.nytimes.com/2026/08/04/well/longevity-callout.html

 

#234 / Who Knows What About Whom?

 

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The title of a Consortium News commentary dated June 11, 2026, reads as follows: "A Requiem For Privacy." The following observation, immediately following that title, tells us this: "On the eve of America’s 250th anniversary, Americans are asked to accept and pay for a government that knows more about us than we do about it."

For about ten years or so, I taught a course at the University of California, Santa Cruz that was titled, "Privacy, Technology, And Freedom." I am writing this blog posting to confirm exactly what Andrew P. Napolitano is telling us in that commentary linked above. 

When someone knows more about you than you do about them, the one who "knows more" has the upper hand. If Napolitano is right (and I am confirming that I believe that he is right) then "government" has the upper hand over the citizens, who are supposed to be in charge. 

That this is true will not come as any surprise to those reading this blog posting. That's my bet! I think that most Americans would probably agree with Napolitano's assessment. However, I am not so sure that the citizens who will find this assessment accurate fully understand the implications of what we are being told. 

We cannot, as citizens, be "in charge" of a government that knows more about us, individually and collectively, than we know about it. 

Conclusion? We need to change this situation! The next two elections will provide us a chance to do that - the "midterms" scheduled for this upcoming November, and then the next general election (including picking our next president) scheduled for 2028. 

If you, reading this, are a citizen of the United States of America who wants to make real what our Declaration of Independence proclaimed, 250 years ago, then let it be known that you are going to have to get together with others who feel the same way, and you are going to have to devote a considerable amount of time and effort to retaking control of the United States of America. On its current path, the "government" is on course to take totalitarian control of us!

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https://consortiumnews.com/2026/06/11/a-requiem-for-privacy/

#233 / Sal Si Puedes?

 

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I follow the weekly, "Notes From Home" column published each week by Trudy Wischemann. Her column appears in the local newspapers of several Central Valley communities. If you click the link that I have provided in the next line of this blog posting, you should be able to read her column titled, "Sal Si Puedes." That means, "Get Out If You Can." Actually, Wischemann is urging her readers to stay put, dig in, and fight back. Small farmers in California's Central Valley are under incredible economic pressure, and many are getting discouraged. 

In the column I have linked, Wischemann cites to Peter Mat­th­iessen’s book, Sal Si Puedes: Cesar Chavez and the New Amer­ican Revolu­tion. Here's her comment: 

Early in the book, Mat­th­iessen held out this hope: “Before this cen­tury is done, there will be an evol­u­tion in our val­ues and the val­ues of human soci­ety, not because man has become more civ­il­ized but because, on a blighted earth, he will have no choice.” 

I think that this is an accurate statement of where global warming has put us. As I am typing out these comments, in mid July, virtually the entire nation faces a massive "heat wave" unlike anything that we have experienced before. Sure, it's been terribly hot, before, but you don't have to be a climate scientist to begin appreciating the fact that our "climate" is definitely "changing." We are all affected, and we, collectively, are causing the problem.

Could this problem be a "blessing in disguise"? Matthiesen's comment seems to indicate that this might be true. It is now clear, for those who hadn't grasped this before, that we, and I do mean all of us, are "in this together." It is more and more obvious that nationalistic rivalries and wars, and divisive prejudices of all kinds, are no longer something in which we can indulge. We must collaborate, and help ourselves to stop damaging, and start repairing, our natural environment. 

What glorious opportunities we have ahead! 

We do, however, have to "stick around" and join the effort, and not think we can make an "individual" escape. Wischemann is right. "Sal Si Puedes" is the very opposite of what we need to be trying to do. Let the billionaires give it their best shot (because it's clear that Peter Thiel and many of the world's other billionaires really do think they can make a personal escape, somehow). 

Wave goodbye to them, and join hands. Maybe we might get in the mood by raising our voices in this song, inspiring when first heard, and still capable of getting us in the mood for what we need to do, right now. 

Lyrics: "We Are The World"

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https://midvalleytimes.com/article/opinion/2026/07/01/land-that-i-love/

#232 / The "Undertow Of "Can't" (And "Cant")

 

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The other day, as I was making the bed, a phrase popped into my mind, completely unbidden, the origins of which remain unknown to me, though I am now retaining the phrase in my memory. Here is that phrase, which I think is a useful one: "The Undertow of Can't." 

The picture above accompanies an article on the Trip Advisor website about a bar named, "The Undertow." That's what came up when I first typed "Undertow" into my Internet search engine. I tried again, though I have, as you see, retained the picture that came up in my initial search. Another search on "undertow" got me the information I was looking for. Should you care to learn more about the dynamics of the offshore currents that exist under near-shore waves (as Wikipedia seems to define "undertow"), you can click right here. 

"Undertow" is, basically, not "visible," not even perceptible. You don't know it's out there, quite often, but it is out there, and if you are unlucky, and aren't really paying enough attention, it can suck you under and kill you. 

For someone who claims that "possibility" is "my category," the dangers of the "Undertow of Can't" are obvious. I have earlier told the story of how I was, as a young person, able to convince myself that I couldn't do things that I, actually, could do, but which I denied I could do. Read my description of how I got cured of this affliction in one of my "Father's Day Stories." I always want to say, "Thanks, Dad," for having hounded me into an understanding of how the "Undertow of Can't" can destroy your powers and possibilities before you even know they're gone.

Just to restate things, briefly, it is possible to convince yourself that you "can't" do something (that you quite probably actually "can" do), and this conviction - this "Undertow of Can't" - can come upon you unbidden, and suddenly, and kill the possibilities that ought to be inspiring you to the kind of action that can (and will) change the world. Change your world, and change the world. Both! 

Beware of "The Undertow of Can't"

Just as a kind of postscript to this thought, I realized, once I said that phrase out loud, that there is, in addition to an "Undertow of Can't," another kind, too. There is an "Undertow of Cant," where "cant" is what sometimes spills out of us, or over us, and of which there is a definite variety of "cant" that is "political" in content and context. 

Since we do, as I insist, "Live In A Political World," we need to be careful not to let our politics be carried away by unseen waves of "conventional or trite opinions or sentiments," as Merriam-Webster defines the word, "cant."

In the end, though, the real and significant danger I want to warn of, today, is the kind of "can't" that removes our ability to create the kind of world we need, and want. So, one more time: 

Beware of "The Undertow of Can't"

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#231 / NSPM-7 (My Statement)

 

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The picture above, retrieved from an important article in The Nation magazine, shows our current president signing National Security Presidential Memorandum-7 (NSPM-7). Please do click the link just provided, and read up on what Wikipedia has to say about this important document. Even better, click this link, for the actual text of NSPM-7. The following link will let you read that article in The Nation, which is titled, "The Chilling Trump Order Threatening All Americans."

"All Americans" includes you! And me, too, of course! 

This blog posting is my personal response to the potential "threat" against me, as identified in the article published in The Nation.

Essentially, what The Nation explains is that this new "National Security Presidential Memorandum," authored by our current president on September 25th of last year, may be utilized to charge and convict citizens (and others) with crimes, even when those prosecuted took no illegal action whatsoever. Such criminal prosecutions would be pursued based on court decisions that rely on a "so-called 'conspiracy doctrine,' which requires only agreement with the idea of an action, not action itself." In other words, "the government doesn't need to prove that anyone did anything, only that they talked about doing it, or associated with people who did."

As an example, if you or I were to join a peaceful protest demonstration, objecting to the conduct of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) personnel in our local community, and then someone in the crowd did something illegal - like hitting a law enforcement officer over the head with a stick - all of those in the protest gathering might well be criminally prosecuted, even though they took no such action themselves, and were just exercising their First Amendment right to speak out on issues of concern to them, and to engage with others in a peaceful demonstration of their political views. The text of the Memorandum clearly suggests that the purpose of the Memorandum is to increase the prosecution of those who are exercising their First Amendment rights, as one way to discourage demonstrations in the first place. 

If you read all the materials highlighted in the first paragraph of this blog posting, you might well think twice about engaging in any kind of peaceful protest action. That, of course, seems to be one reason that our current president has promulgated NSPM-7, and has indicated that its objectives should be vigorously pursued by federal officials.

If you are not willing to give up your First Amendment right to engage in peaceful demonstrations and peaceful protests, it might well make sense to try to insulate yourself from the kind of prosecutions highlighted by The Nation. If the federal government carries through on its implied plan to prosecute people who "associate" with people who engage in arguably criminal conduct, and who support the "idea of an action," as opposed to being involved in any potentially criminal conduct themselves, it will be important to make clear in advance (to the greatest degree you can do so) that you do not "agree" with any kind of criminal conduct that might occur during a peaceful protest in which you are engaged.

Let me say, I do believe that our courts will not, ultimately, let the government convict and then penalize people who don't "do" anything that is illegal, themselves, but who merely exercise their right to assemble and to speak out about their political views. Nonetheless, as The Nation's article makes clear, the federal government may adopt a strategy of prosecuting people not guilty of any illegal "action," but who just hold views that are the same as someone who did do something illegal. 

I, personally, do not intend to curtail my First Amendment right to speak out on issues of concern to me, and to join, with others, to express my views. I want to repudiate any idea that I think I should be able to take any illegal action, myself, without facing possible prosecution for things that I actually do. "Action,"  however, is what might be grounds for criminal prosecution. If my actions are consistent with the law - and I understand that the law absolutely respects and includes my Constitutional right to assemble with others and to speak out on things I care about - then I should not be subjected to prosecution because someone else has done something that, arguably, violates the law. 

So, let me say the following, as clearly as I can: As of the date and time this blog posting is published, I want the following to be understood: I do not support, or advocate violent or illegal actions as a way to "make a statement," or as a way to achieve some political goal that I support. If someone whose political positions are consistent with my own political positions does something that is arguably illegal, the fact that I share their political positions, or was in the same geographic location that they were during some kind of protest or demonstration, is absolutely not my "agreement" to support their actions, whatever they may be, or may have been. I should be prosecuted for crimes only when I act against the law. 

And that's true for everyone!

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https://www.thenation.com/article/politics/trump-nspm-7-repression/

#230 / The Winning Formula

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Ben Rhodes, an Obama Administration insider, is a person whose ideas about politics can be taken seriously. That's my judgment, at least. 

In the August 14, 2026, edition of The New York Times, Rhodes outlines what he calls "The Winning Formula For Democrats In "Red States." This is the hardcopy headline on his August 14th opinion column. When you click either that link, or the following link, and read Rhodes' column online, you'll run into a different headline: "He’s Young and Thoughtful, With Kennedyesque Good Looks. Can He Break the Republican Grip on His State?" The state at issue, incidentally, is Iowa. 

If you pay close attention, you will immediately note that the two headlines are incompatible - unless, that is, the "winning formula" for Democrats, in the upcoming midterm elections, is for all Democratic candidates to be "young," and "thoughtful," and to possess "Kennedyesque Good Looks." That doesn't, really, seem like a "formula," does it?

In fact, Rhodes isn't really betting on "good looks." Here is the "formula" he is advocating (emphasis added): 

For all our obsession with national politics and policies, the path out of corrupt, one-party government starts at the local level. That’s where you can take advantage of a party that has become lazy in power, build organizing muscle and test approaches that can be repurposed for other states or scaled up nationally.

As a former local government official (in a "non-partisan" office, by the way), I think the "formula" just highlighted is, in fact, a very real way forward towards political achievement and success, in a time in which our "partisan" politics is both perceived as, and actually is, "corrupt." 

Of course, while it is a lot easier to get people engaged in the thrilling adventure of "self-government" when they are operating at the "local" level, in the communities in which they live, the "formula" identified by Rhodes won't work at the "local" level any more than at the state or national level, if ordinary men and women don't get involved in politics themselves. 

I'm telling you (and I know about this), getting together with your friends, forming some kind of political "club," and working at the local level for political change (the kind of change that can transform our "political world" to achieve what we decide we want) is not only the high road to effective political power, it's a lot of fun!

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https://www.nytimes.com/2026/08/10/opinion/rob-sand-democrats-iowa.html

#229 / No Further Explanation Is Required

 

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I have been writing blog postings for a long time. I put up one blog posting per day, and I am now in my 16th year of doing that. During all that time, I have frequently found myself posting photos with a title along the lines of "1,000 Words." A picture, it is sometimes said, is "worth 1,000 words." You can "Google" the phrase if you think you need to verify how extensively this claim is made.

Essentially, the statement that "a picture is worth 1,000 Words" is a statement that the picture alone is enough. No further explanation is required. I last discussed the "1,000 Words" phenomenon in April of this year, and you can click right here to review that blog posting, which chronicles and links some of my past "1,000 Words" items. Here is the picture that went along with that April blog posting (I really like it):

That picture, I'm thinking, could be an advertisement for Wallace Baine's recent book, Founding Daughter. As for the picture at the top (no commentary, of course, is needed), it comes from a New York Times' opinion column, by a Canadian novelist, Stephen Marche, which is headlined, "The Zombification Of The United States." You can read Marche's column, which I would certainly encourage, by clicking that link, but there's a real message in the photo that accompanied Marche's column (the photo reproduced at the top of this blog posting), and I don't think that any further explanation is required, to make clear its meaning!

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Image Credits:

(1) - https://www.nytimes.com/2026/07/09/opinion/america-world-us-isolation.html
(2) - https://www.gapatton.net/2026/04/96-another-1000-words-item.html

#228 / Lo Nuestro Es Pasar

 

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Here is what Wikipedia says about Antonio Machado, who is pictured above: 

Antonio Machado was a Spanish poet and one of the leading figures of the Spanish literary movement known as the Generation of '98. His work, initially modernist, evolved towards an intimate form of symbolism with romantic traits. He gradually developed a style characterized by both a commitment with humanity on one side and an almost Taoist contemplation of existence on the other, a synthesis that, according to Machado, echoed the most ancient popular wisdom. 

I know Machado mainly through his poem, "Caminante," which might be translated as "Traveler." "Caminante" is a rather short poem:

Caminante, son tus huellas el camino y nada más;
Caminante, no hay camino, se hace camino al andar.
Al andar se hace el camino, y al volver la vista atrás
se ve la senda que nunca se ha de volver a pisar.
Caminante, no hay camino sino estelas en la mar.

I would translate Machado's poem this way:

Traveler, your footsteps are the path, and nothing more. 

Traveler, there isn't any path; we make our path by walking. 

By walking, we make our path, and when we look back, 

We see a path that we will never be able to return to and walk again. 

Traveler, there isn't any path, just the traces of our footsteps on the sea.

While I have just said that I know Machado mainly through this poem, "Caminante," I actually know the poem through a song. To read the lyrics to the song, the only song on my "Memorial Playlist" that was not written by Bob Dylan, just click this link, and scroll down to that last song. That will get you to the lyrics, in Spanish, with my imperfect translation. 

Click right here to listen to Machado's poem, as sung by Joan Manuel Serrat! 

I hope you will. I think it is rather beautiful. 

In the longer, "song" version of Machado's poem, here is the beginning verse:

Todo pasa y todo queda,        Everything passes and everything remains,

Pero lo nuestro es pasar,        But our fate is to pass on.

Pasar haciendo caminos,       We pass on as we make pathways,

Caminos sobre la mar.           Pathways over the sea.

Truly an inspired poem, and song! Come fellow traveler, and sing it with me. And with Machado!

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Image Credit:

https://www.modernfrescopaintings.com/antonio-machado-caminante/

#227 / One Of Those Rare, Historic Moments

  

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America faces one of those rare, historic moments when government, business, schools and families could be working together to meet a truly generational challenge... So far, we’re blowing it.

The quote I have provided, above, comes from an article published in the July 11-12, 2026, edition of The Wall Street Journal. Click right here to read the article.

The article I have just linked is about AI, "Artificial Intelligence," and this article - typical of so much that we read, nowadays - talks about the challenges and opportunities involved in phasing out human ("real") intelligence, in favor of the "artificial" brand, which is, purportedly, so much better than the normal kind. 

I always remember the story of the Golden Calf when I read about the wonderful benefits in store for us, as we leave behind our own, natural intelligence, and begin to worship at the altar of one of our own, human creations, preferring what WE have made over what a "religious" person would say is the intelligence that God has given us. 

At any rate, I am featuring the bolded quote, above, not because it is about AI (the ellipsis marks the elimination of a reference to AI), but because I think this quote perfectly states a REAL historic moment in which we find ourselves, and a REAL "generational challenge" that we face. 

I am referring to the challenge of Global Warming. Click right here for an earlier blog posting highlighting how fraught this current, "historic moment" really is. Global Warming has put the whole world in danger. We are causing it, and we need to meet what is, in fact, a "generational" challenge, and devote ourselves, collectively, to doing everything we can to reverse what we have put in motion, and to limit the damage that is coming upon us. 

How are we doing, so far? Though written to address another issue entirely, that quote from The Wall Street Journal, as I have presented it at the start of this blog posting, perfectly sums up the status of our current response to the generational challenge of Global Warming: 

So far, we're blowing it!

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Image Credit:

https://www.wsj.com/tech/ai/ai-doomerism-jim-vandehei-axios-9163dfd3