Spring

The photo above was from my condo on March 1, 2016  at 5:15 PM. It was a proper wintry day, and I took a certain amount of satisfaction in it. I mean, what is winter without the wind? Without the snow? Without the dark days?

And this was yesterday

on a street nearby. I took this because of the clouds and the moon. (The moon is a faint white spot which can be located by looking at the pole in the middle of the photo, going straight up about 6/8 of an inch and then left an inch.)
It was warmish; maybe about 48 F at the time. Windy a bit. The windiest day is Wednesday, which is garbage day, and all the garbage can blow about and the trash receptacles get to run around and take off from their owners. Every Wednesday.

A Nor'easter threatens the East Coast, and will - if given half a chance - freeze the baby cherry blossoms in Washington D.C. which, if left unthreatened, would be peaking about next Thursday. This extra-tropical cyclone will not make it to where we live, so we shall go to it and visit Mary Olivia Adenike since we have not seen her in a couple weeks.
She is much alert now. She will probably see us and be excited, saying something like,

"Who are the two old numbers?" 

I took the flannel sheets off the bed for the last time until next winter. I also looked up some information on lawn mowers, the best type to buy, pro and con. I will be looking to buy some cordgrass for bank stabilization at Harsens Island again. Here's the Google Earth shot of the place:

It is the grey roof in the left-center. There is just over 15,000 square feet of lawn, which puts me into the "under 1/2 acre" group for lawn-mower hunting. There is a dock - which runs into the Google earth logo - which is maintenance needy. Our waterfront property on the south (towards the bottom of the photo) ends at the large foliage cluster of the trees my father used to call "river birches".

They were not birches. I think we looked them up and they were some sort of larch or alder. I have forgotten, so I just call them river birches. You cannot appreciate how large they have become in this photo.

Here's a photo of the place awaiting what Winston Churchill would have called "The Gathering Storm". The river birches are not visible.

My father always complained about neighbors who had things that would block his view of the river. If you look north of the dock in the Google earth photo, you will see a smallish dab of green foliage, which is a red maple sprout on the lot of the neighbor on the north. My father used to mutter about this tree at times.

I would ask him about the river birches, which were about 30 times more effective in obstructing lines of sight of anyone downstream, and he would say that he asked everybody down there, and they said they could see just fine.

And two houses or so further north is the spot where an enormous boathouse was to be constructed back in 1988. A lot of the structure had gone up and it completely obliterated the view upriver. So my father wrote to the District Office of the Army Corps of Engineers, who were in charge of such things on the waterways of the USA.

Well, the boathouse did not comply with the Corps and the owner had to take it down.

All that is left of the once lofty and magnificent structure is a measly little dock with two large boat wells....

... oh, and an extremely cute Tiki bar, which I call Swigwam North in homage to the real Swigwam on St. Pete's Beach. If you look closely at the south (the bottom of the photo) boat well, which is unoccupied, you might see some sort of spikey thingies on the dock. Those are palms trees, swaying in the breezes and keeping time to the ukelele music.
I can tell you I always wanted to go there and sit at the bar. We go right by it when we start out canoeing on our way to Big Pee and Little Pee islands... 

As time heals all wounds, so it did mend the fences and obliterate memories from the disputes of 20 plus years ago or more. Before my father passed away, he met the lady who lived at the house to which the Swigwam was a powerful Tiki adjunct, and they had a nice discussion about islandy type things. Things seemed pretty cozy after all.

As he told us this story, I was trying to figure out ways to wangle a Tiki bar invite.

He laughed as he recounted this to us, because all the neighborly and comradely conversation led up to his reminding her that he was the dynamo behind the anti-boathouse campaign of yesteryear...
I think he said that she blanched...
or gaped...
or coughed and excused herself and left.

I have never been to that bloody Tiki bar.

Neighbor Knowles from down Monroe Street

(His name actually is "Neighbor Knowles"!)
--

Continuous Transportation: Rail

 Un État de Transport Continu
inspiré par le film Transperceneige

Illinois Central Railroad, Chicago, 1943, South Water Street, Night

photo:  Jack Delano 

source: shorpy.com

--

Foreign AId

In VOX
This map should change the way you think about foreign aid
Updated by Matthew Yglesias on November 8, 2015, 8:00 a.m. ET
http://www.vox.com/2015/11/8/9684494/foreign-aid-map

Critics of foreign aid often argue that it's ineffective at generating sustainable economic development or truly helping the world's poor. But as this great map from the cost information website HowMuch.net reveals, one reason for that is that promoting development and helping the poor isn't actually what motivates a lot of America's foreign aid:

--

Continuous Transportation: Rail

 Un État de Transport Continu
inspiré par le film Transperceneige

Illinois Central Railroad, Chicago, 1943, South Water Street

photo:  Jack Delano

source: shorpy.com
-- 

So It Begins...

--

Пряники

Пряники 
Pryaniki: Russian gingerbread or spice cookies.
Mix the sugar, eggs, soda, cinnamon, honey...
cardamom, ginger, cloves, nutmeg, anise...

Jewish children with a Teacher in Samarkand, about 1910

One of the photos of Sergei Prtokudin-Gorski  of Imperial Russia.

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Happy News (At Last!)

 Shannon, Possibly in his Neo-Classical Doghouse

Finally, some good, old-fashioned news we may all relate to; news that reminds us how wonderful things actually are, and how fortunate we are. As the Republican candidates this year have underscored, it is good things like these below that cause terrorists to hate us and refugees - those who haven't drowned yet, that is - wannabe us!

Daily Mail
Media billionaire Barry Diller and wife Diane von Fürstenberg clone beloved Jack Russell terrier into TWO new puppies
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3492674/Media-billionaire-Barry-Diller-wife-Diane-von-F-rstenberg-clone-beloved-Jack-Russell-terrier-two-new-puppies.html

Media executive Barry Diller and his wife Diane von Fürstenberg have cloned their Jack Russell terrier, Shannon, into two new puppies, it has been revealed.

Diller, the chairman of IAC, was so enamored by his pooch that he got his beloved pet's DNA cloned by a specialist pair of puppies who are almost exact replicas of Shannon.

It is unknown when the dog's DNA was cloned, but the couple appear to have two new puppies running around already.
Barry Diller, the chairman of IAC, and his wife, Diane von Fürstenberg, cloned their beloved dog Shannon to create two new adorable puppies

Barry Diller, the chairman of IAC, and his wife, Diane von Fürstenberg, cloned their beloved dog Shannon to create two new adorable puppies
Shannon, a Jack Russell Terrier, was a hit around Hollywood and made appearances at pre-Oscar parties... [and]was a hit around Hollywood, having been the talk of the town on more than one occasion...

Shannon was also known for sleeping in an extravagant, custom-made neoclassical doghouse when she wasn't hitting the streets of Los Angeles.

Cloning a dog can cost up to $100,000. The procedure is done by a Korean company that implants the dog's DNA into a dog egg.

A representative for Diller confirmed that the dog was cloned but would not add any further comments.

It is unknown if Shannon is still living.

Hah!  Living... The Life Of Riley !!!

Put's a new spin on living a dog's life.

If only Angela Merkel had backed dog cloning instead of helping refugees, she would not be losing local elections right now!

--

Omnium and Gatherum March 15 2016

Sheriff Earl "Moose" Butler

1)
The Independent
Donald Trump almost faced charges over North Carolina campaign violence
The Republican said of his supporters targeting protesters: 'They started punching back. It was a beautiful thing.'
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-elections/donald-trump-almost-faced-charges-over-north-carolina-campaign-violence-a6931661.html

Authorities in North Carolina say there is not enough evidence to press charges against Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump for his behaviour in connection with a violent altercation at one of his rallies last week.
Cumberland County Sheriff's Office said legal counsel advised and Sheriff Earl “Moose” Butler agreed that the evidence did not meet the requirements of North Carolina law to support a conviction for inciting a riot...

I get the impression that people look at these protesters as somehow living out a scenario of opposing evil lest it get a foothold, and the whole thing is based on a certain understanding of Pastor Martin Niemöller's famous quote;

"First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out because I was not a Socialist ...... and there was no one left to speak for me."

and there is a dim impression that somehow people did not do enough Nazi bashing back in the Weimar Republic times, otherwise Hitler never would have come to power.

Actually, there was a great deal of head-bashing between the Nazis and Communists and Socialists; there was a lot of street fighting, and such fighting led to each party having a security arm to protect against violence to their own rallies and also possibly to disrupt opponent's rallies (a parallel recently surfacing in Mr. Trump accusing Mr. Sanders of provocation and threatening that his followers would go to Mr. Sanders' rallies to show 'em what for.)


2)
See above...
The Cumberland County Sheriff's nickname is "Moose".
Cool.


3)
Most commercially available garlic are the softneck variety. The more interesting types are the hardneck variety...
Interesting in the sense that you may prefer them if you tend to eat garlic raw...

I eat a bit of raw garlic.
Of course, I have to do it furtively, and then use lots of mouthwash so no one will know my addiction. I usually have a big slice of cheese with it, making sort of a cheese-garlic sandwich.
The hardneck types can be very different from the garlic we are used to.
They often are much less biting while remaining aromatic. Much easier to eat raw.

Now you know my secret life. I think Thomas de Quincey wrote Confessions of an English Garlick-Eater in 1840.


4)
The Independent
Hundreds of refugees hunt for new route into Europe as three drown on Greece-Macedonia border
Macedonian police say they are taking steps to send back ‘several hundred’ refugees believed to have crossed into country
Loulla-Mae Eleftheriou-Smith
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/refugees-drown-greece-macedonia-hundreds-hunt-for-new-route-into-europe-a6930541.html

Three refugees have drowned while attempting to cross a river from Greece into Macedonia, according to police, as refugees attempt to find a new route to cross into the country.

Macedonian police said the bodies of two men and a woman had been found in the Suva Reka river near the border town of Gevgelija on Monday morning, which had swelled due to heavy rain.

I have a sneaky suspicion this used to happen a lot in Ancient Roman when barbarians wanted to get over the Rhine or the Danube or the Orontes to where the streets were paved with gold.

The comments to the story are, as one may expect, quite rich:

Google "muslim protests to allow non muslims to go to Mecca" and you will find nothing. Google, how many refugees have Saudi taken in and you will find it is nil. Why are we Europeans, the Kaffur, supposed to pick up after Muslim inter sect wars when they don't care about us. I am happy that if there are now no borders than Hindus, Jews, Christians etc etc should be able to pour in Mecca and if the Muslims try to stop them then the UN should intervene and bomb them if necessary.

All the hubbub has led to a new "Refugee Look":

Fashion editors across the board are heralding a ‘real-refugee revolution’ and a return to an authentic look. Where fashion goes, interiors follow:

Refugee Chair; "Less is indeed less."

--

Continuous Transportation: Canals

 Un État de Transport Continu
inspiré par le film Transperceneige

Erie Canal aqueduct over the Mohawk River at Rexford, NY.

pic: wikipedia

--

3rd Party?

I had read the previous post about Andrew Jackson being denied the presidency in 1824, and how he came roaring back in 1828. And I have been mulling it over.

After dinner as I was drinking my ginger tea, I was overhearing some of the news about violence at rallies, and it struck me that perhaps Mr. Trump is not reaching out to the center. Perhaps he is setting about setting up a 3rd Party, assuming that for one reason or another, he is denied the Republican nomination.

Actually, with the political dysfunction we have witnessed for more than 8 years, a third party might actually be in position to provide needed support for the majority party in Congress to pass laws. At present, the Republican majority has needed Democratic support at times when it could not get it from the extreme right of its own party.

If Trump establishes a Third Party with a devoted and active group of followers who are able to gain about 50 seats in the House, they might be in a position to put The Art Of The Deal into play.

--

Bigwigs Know Best

Andrew Jackson

Great article:

Politico
The First Time Party Bigwigs Tried to Stop a Front-Runner From Becoming President It Backfired—Big-time
What the GOP can learn from the story of Andrew Jackson in 1824.
By Andrew Saunders March 13, 2016
http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2016/03/gop-2016-andrew-jackson-1824-213726

America has never seen a presidential candidate like this before. Detractors point to his lack of political experience, his poor grasp of policy, his alleged autocratic leanings and his shady past. They believe this man without much of a political platform (but with interesting hair) has neither the qualifications nor the temperament to be president. Yet in defiance of conventional wisdom, he is leading his three main rivals in the race for the White House, and party bigwigs are at a loss how to respond. No, it’s not Donald Trump. His name is Andrew Jackson, and the year is 1824...

I do not think Mr. Trump has the same size following, and he is not a larger-than-life war hero, but it is an interesting parallel.
--

racism Begets RACISM

President Obama unloaded on the Republican Party


Huffington Post
Obama Ridicules GOP For Trump's Rise
"How can you be shocked?"
03/12/2016 12:58 am ET
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/obama-gop-trump_us_56e3a680e4b0b25c918219e8?utm_hp_ref=politics

.."How can you be shocked?" Obama asked. "This is the guy, remember, who was sure that I was born in Kenya. Who just wouldn’t let it go. And all this same Republican establishment, they weren’t saying nothing. As long as it was directed at me, they were fine with it. They thought it was a hoot. Wanted to get his endorsement. And then now, suddenly, we’re shocked that there’s gambling going on in this establishment...

I like the reference (or, homage, as the speech-gourmands say today) to Casablanca's Captain Louis Renault.
I dislike the awareness that once again we are in nasty territory, with a memory of Major Heinrich Strasser lurking about.

President Obama is quite correct: your little racist episodes (State of the Union "Liar!" being one of thousands) numb society into acceptance of damnable Racism in the blink of an eye.

--

Omnium And Gatherum March 13 2016

What do we have "on tap" (as they say on the 6:00 PM news) today?

First, we have the Ominous and Gatherous number #1 topic:


1) Political Violence

'We Aren't Nazis' Says Husband Of Woman Who Gave Nazi Salute At Trump Rally
"If you're gonna bastardize history, at least know the history you're bastardizing."
Sebastian Murdock 03/12/2016 07:11 pm ET
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/trump-rally-nazi-salute-husband_us_56e49dcde4b065e2e3d63576?utm_hp_ref=mostpopular

... "They did their version of the Nazi salute and called us Nazis," Peterson said. He and his wife responded to the protesters: "'If you’re gonna do it, do it right, here’s the right way to do the Nazi salute.'"

And that's when Birgitt Peterson raised her arm, captured in a now viral image by Chicago Tribune photographer E. Jason Wambsgans.

"My wife was responding to them and making this a teaching moment," Mr. Peterson said. "I'm all for their right and support them for protesting, but you don’t call people Nazis, or say Trump or people who support him are the equivalent of Nazis -- that is asinine. That is ridiculousness."

"If they're going to make the comparison, they ought to at least know what the Nazi salute was and what it meant," he went on. "If you're gonna bastardize history, at least know the history you're bastardizing." ...

Then there is the informal salute, too:

and

Breitbart Spokesman Resigns Over Trump Aide Assault: 'This S**t Just Sucks'
He pointed to an "escalating pattern of behavior" at Trump rallies that is "incredibly dangerous."
Ryan Grim 03/11/2016 04:44 pm ET
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/breitbart-spokesman-resigns-over-trump-aide-assault-this-shit-just-sucks_us_56e33acfe4b065e2e3d607b7?utm_hp_ref=mostpopular

...In Bardella's [Breitbart's spokeman] view, the violence on the campaign trail is getting out of hand and needs to be called out. "There is this escalating pattern of behavior that's only happening at Donald Trump events. It's incredibly dangerous. His rhetoric is unmistakable and it is calculated and it is intentional," Bardella said.

Asked why Breitbart seems to be siding with the Trump campaign over its reporter Michelle Fields, Bardella said he wasn't sure. "I think there certainly appears to be conflicting agendas at play here. Your guess is as good as mine," he said.

[...]

UPDATE: 11:40 p.m. -- Bardella told CNN's Don Lemon on Friday night that he disagrees with Brietbart's coverage of the incident with Fields and "how they have treated Michelle."

"I think they have been looking for a reason to disprove something," Bardella said.

"Are you saying they are lying?" Lemon asked.

"Yes, I am," Bardella answered.

Three things stand out here. The first is the fact that our Media is grotesquely taking up sides and is rapidly losing all pretense at being "fair and balanced", as previously noted about FOX's campaign against Donald Trump.
It is one thing to voice one's opinion. It is quite another to become enmeshed in the political campaign as a participant.

Second, Political Violence is a mortal Tango which requires two damned souls to pull it off.

Even though a campaign may be courting violence, those who are opposed and protest should not be sucked into the vortex of violence, for by doing so, they only provide the justification for the formation of para-military organizations to provide security at political rallies.
If these para-militaries were to wear Brown Shirts, the rest of us dimwits may begin to understand.

Third, although it does not deal with violence, the Supreme Court blockade is unprecedented and radical in nature.
That's right; it is not a conservative action; it is a radical action.
Thus, it undermines the Constitution in the same manner that violence does.

**

2) Lucius Beebe

Wikipedia entry: Lucius Beebe
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucius_Beebe

...Beebe wrote a syndicated column for the New York Herald Tribune from the 1930s through 1944 called This New York. The column chronicled the doings of fashionable society at such storied restaurants and nightclubs as El Morocco, the 21 Club, the Stork Club, and The Colony. Mr. Beebe is credited with popularizing the term "cafe society" which was used to describe the people mentioned in his column...

...Beebe was a noted gourmand. He had his own column "Along the Boulevard," in Gourmet, and wrote extensively for Holiday and Playboy about restaurants and dining experiences around the world. Some of the restaurants he covered include The Colony, The Stork Club,[6] The Pump Room, the 21 Club, Simpson's-in-the-Strand, and Chasen's. A noted wine aficionado, he was a member of the Confrérie des Chevaliers du Tastevin...

I have always been interested in New York night life from the 1920s through the 1950s. Names like "The Mocambo" or "The Tropicana" - Ricky Ricardo's club - just sort of reverberate through my head.
What really got my attention was the last word in the quote above, "Tastevin" meaning "wine-tasting cup" ... you know, that little thing that Niles Crain tastes wine from and then expectorates it out into the silver wine-tasting spittoon... which I suppose is foppishly called the Crachevin!

I was surprised I guess because I had never used the word before. What I saw was that although French had many occasions of "vowel+s+t" -  such as beste meaning "beast, animal" - becoming "vowel+circumflex+t  - such as beste -> bête , and the word for "to taste", which is now tâter, used to have that s between the "a" and the "t".

However, the S remained in certain not very commonly used words, such as Tastevin.
I learned something today.


**

3) Daylight Savings
I have just learned that it is one hour later than I thought. I hate Daylight Savings.

--

The Face Of Erdogan's Turkey

Journalists carry an injured woman after Turkish riot-police used tear gas to
disperse supporters in front of the headquarters of Turkish daily newspaper
Zaman in Istanbul after Turkish authorities seized the headquarters in a midnight raid.
© AFP 2016/ Ozan Kose


Turkey, a member of NATO, is also carrying on ethnic cleansing against its Kurdish minority in the southeastern part of the country.


--

Maslenitsa

Tomorrow should be the last day of Maslenitsa, a week marking the end of winter and the beginning of the Lenten fast on March 14. We are going by the Orthodox calendar right now. I know Latin Rite Ash Wednesday was way back when I was still in Maryland for my granddaughter's birth.

Strictly Orthodox.

I like the blini, or the pancakes, eaten with real maple syrup or with buckwheat honey. Or powdered sugar. Or some sort of fruity preserves. Or fresh fruit... whipped cream is OK, and even sour cream or labne...


Anyway, "Tolle! Lege!"  ("Pick it up and read it!") as the angel said to St. Augustine when asked why the divine messenger had thrown a tome of scripture at him.

Russia and India Report
Some different kinds of pancakes
The recipes for a few unusual pancakes, made with ingredients like beer and beets, are outlined to bring some Russian Maslenitsa festivity to your kitchen.
http://in.rbth.com/arts/cuisine/2016/03/10/some-different-kinds-of-pancakes_574407

... Beer pancakes

This is a good way to use up all your extra beer before starting the Lenten fast, even though some traditions hold that beer is ok to drink, even if you are fasting.

Use dark beer for sweeter taste.

Ingredients:

16 ounces milk
16 ounces beer (lager, or darker beer for sweeter taste)
2 cups sifted wheat flour, or 1.5 cups of wheat flour, or 1/2 cup rye flour
1-2 eggs
2 tablespoons vegetable oil or melted butter
1 tablespoon sugar or white honey
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 potato

Instructions follow...

--

Hilary Remembers GGF !!!!

GGF!!
Greatest Generation Forever!!!
Greatest Gipper Forever!!!


The Guardian
Hillary Clinton says she misspoke about how Reagans dealt with Aids crisis
After swift backlash from LGBT activists, the Democratic frontrunner apologizes for saying Ronald and Nancy Reagan ‘started a national conversation’
http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/mar/11/hillary-clinton-comments-reagan-aids-crisis-backlash

Hillary Clinton outraged LGBT activists on Friday with her comments at Nancy Reagan’s funeral praising the former first lady for helping start a “national conversation” about HIV – remarks that critics say ignore the Reagans’ deeply troubling legacy on the 1980s Aids crisis.

“It may be hard for your viewers to remember how difficult it was for people to talk about HIV/Aids back in the 1980s,” the Democratic frontrunner told MSNBC in an interview at the funeral, which was held at the Reagan presidential library in Simi Valley, California.

Clinton continued: “Because of both president and Mrs Reagan, in particular Mrs Reagan, we started a national conversation when before nobody would talk about it, nobody wanted to do anything about it, and that, too, is something that I really appreciate. With her very effective, low-key advocacy … it penetrated the public conscience and people began to say: ‘Hey, we have to do something about this too.’”...

 I did not even need to look this up. I remember very well what the Reagan response was to HIV/AIDs.
At the time, it was a shocking disease, and even though the majority of sufferers were gay men, the disease did not come with a disclaimer saying that HIV promised never, ever, to mutate into some other form which might more easily affect the entire population.

I was incredulous at the callousness and the lack of responsibility demonstrated by the administration, by Mr. Reagan, and by Mrs. Reagan. If I recall correctly, the entire first Reagan administration refused to deal with HIV, and at no time did that pair of icons begin a national conversation.

More "Greatest Generation" b.s.

The "Greatest Generation fought World War II. If you recall, that was a decision to fight when attacked. If you recall Adlai Stevenson's speech in the 1950s,

"We are on the eve of great decisions. Not easy decisions, such as to fight when attacked..."

Nobody disputed with Adlai; it is an easy decision to fight when attacked. There were casualties and great suffering, but those benefits of life have been passed out to all generations of mankind, not just the mid-20th century generations that had developed Media Spotlights to light up themselves, culminating in Tom Brokaw fawning over the GGF in a disgustingly obsequious and self-serving manner.

Now we come to Hillary.
What dybbuk possessed her? Or possesses her? The ghosts of Syria?

--

What Are "Songs About Gondolas"

I'm imagining some category about my own, private Jeopardy, and the category in question is Songs About _____ .

How many songs are there about gondolas or about events set in gondolas? And I do not mean songs sung by gondolieri, such as O Sole Mio and other ditties one finds up and down the canali of Venice. Truth is, there are times when one would want to escape from the incessant floating cantors.

My favorite:  Gondola No Uta from Kurasowa's masterpiece, Ikiru.

My next favorite is who other than Joe Locke - portrayed by Ned Beatty - singing Hear My Song
from the wonderfully imaginative and magic movie Hear My Song.

Well, the owner won't let anyone watch the vid on a site other than YouTube, so I'll post a pic of Ned Beatty in role and a song video of the real Joe Locke.

(The lyrics run "Hear my song, Violetta; hear my song beneath the moon; come to me, in my gondola..." )



Then there is Biondina In Gondoeta  (The Blonde in the Gondola) sung by the great Orietta Berti

Ciao, bella! Ciao.

--

Omnium and Gatherum: March 11 2016

People hold up photos of slain Honduran indigenous leader and environmentalist Berta Cáceres outside the coroner’s office in Tegucigalpa. (AP Photo / Fernando Antonio)

1)
The Nation
Before Her Murder, Berta Cáceres Singled Out Hillary Clinton for Criticism
The presidential candidate has ignored criticism of her role in enabling the consolidation of the Honduran coup.
By Greg Grandin Yesterday 1:31 pm
http://www.thenation.com/article/chronicle-of-a-honduran-assassination-foretold/

...In a video interview, given in Buenos Aires in 2014, Cáceres says it was Clinton who helped legitimate and institutionalize the [Honduran] coup. In response to a question about the exhaustion of the opposition movement (to restore democracy), Cáceres says (around 6:10): “The same Hillary Clinton, in her book Hard Choices, practically said what was going to happen in Honduras. This demonstrates the bad legacy of North American influence in our country. The return of Mel Zelaya to the presidency (that is, to his constitutionally elected position) was turned into a secondary concern. There were going to be elections.” Clinton, in her position as secretary of state, pressured (as her emails show) other countries to agree to sideline the demands of Cáceres and others that Zelaya be returned to power. Instead, Clinton pushed for the election of what she calls in Hard Choices a “unity government.” But Cáceres says: “We warned that this would be very dangerous.… The elections took place under intense militarism, and enormous fraud.”

The Clinton-brokered election did indeed install and legitimate a militarized regime based on repression. In the interview, Cáceres says that Clinton’s coup-government, under pressure from Washington, passed terrorist and intelligence laws that criminalized political protest. Cáceres called it “counterinsurgency,” carried out on behalf of “international capital”—mostly resource extractors—that has terrorized the population, murdering political activists by the high hundreds. “Every day,” Cáceres said elsewhere, “people are killed.”

Interestingly, Hillary Clinton removed the most damning sentences regarding her role in legitimating the Honduran coup from the paperback edition of Hard Choices...

Hillary Clinton was the Mini-Dick Cheney of the Obama Administration, and had events been different, she would have turned out as baneful as Cheney. Has she learned anything? I have no idea.
And she is not going there.

Runners        Carlo Allegri/Reuters

2)
The Atlantic
Retracing Our Steps
A familiar running trail can be a time machine.
Paul Bisceglio Mar 10, 2016
http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2016/03/running-and-involuntary-memories/472374/

...Many of running’s psychological benefits already are well-known. It releases dopamine and increases blood flow in the brain, which not only makes people feel better than if they’d stayed on the couch, but helps them think sharper and more creatively, too. In a study published this month in the Journal of Psychology, a group of Finnish and American researchers found that—in lab rats, at least—distance running actually generates more new brain cells in adults than other types of exercise. And earlier studies have shown that running especially increases neurons in mice’s hippocampus, the area of the brain that plays a key role in learning and memory...

I knew there had to be an explanation why I am so brainy.

--

Trump Today

I think that, among other things, Mr. Trump has initiated debate and talk about important issues that were being soft-pedalled and ignored. Oh, they were mentioned, but there was never much heat except among very committed activists.

Mr. Trump was an opportunist.

Senator Mitch McConnell and obstructionist Republicans are non-opportunists.

Oh, and one other thing. I am extremely tired of people like The Huffington Post writing articles, then attaching a disclaimer at the end that Mr. Trump is a bigot, a racist, and Himmler's great-grand-nephew.
That is almost as trashy as FOX news attacking Mr. Trump in their "fair and balanced" manner.

At least Mr. Trump has pulled the blinders off everyone's eyes and has ripped the cloaks of sanctimonious from the Media emperors, forcing them into new clothes. We may now see exactly how insidious our media are, and how inanely empty of real content.

--

Downtown Abbey Had A Fine Endings...

 Lady Edith

I saw the ending of Downton Abbey and I thoroughly enjoyed it. In fact, I enjoyed this whole last season. There may be one or two of you who seem to recall that I swore off the bloody mess some years ago and never spent a moment's time looking at it, except for a few minutes here and there when Barrow was darkly smoking a fag and his distaff partner in crime, O'Brien, lurked about, smirking with sexual and otherwise tension....
 The first season was pretty good, but the second season was awful, and Julian Fellowes sort of showed an unusual inability to stick to a plot.
I  hypothesized that the whole thing was a nonce, and nobody thought it would go anywhere, and Julian Fellowes was off celebrating on some sort of extended LGBT Days of Wine and Roses.

This ghastly hopping around was bad enough, but then he decided to plagiarize vignettes in their entirety without even attempting to disguise them; exampli gratia, the flower or rose show where the dowager duchess won year after year was a barbarous rapine of Lady Beldon's perennially winning roses in Mrs. Miniver!
Shameful.

Things did get better, so I was informed. I stayed quite apart from it. Until the last 2 seasons, that is, and then I found that it had become less primitive and barbarous, more civilized and more suited to mixed company. Even Mr. Barrow had abandoned his rather aimless and uninformed quest for evil frivolity, and become a substantial citizen.

However, there was a certain lapse last night... a certain lapse! That's all I can say about it; a certain lapse!
When Bertie and Edith are on the verge of tying the knot, there is this business of morals rearing its ugly head. So there's Marigold and whatever.... I did not catch a mention of Edith's amours with the local farmers, rolling about in the hayloft... because Sir Julian forget it, I suppose.

But there was a mention of Bertie's cousin, the Marquess of Something - perhaps "of Omnium Et Gatherum!?!? - who died a while back in Tangiers under the most shady and sketchy of circumstances, and we really must not go there! 
It positively reeked of the Reading Gaol.


Rather a bit like Lord Sebastian Flyte in Evelyn Waugh's Brideshead Revisited. Rather!
Perhaps the Marquess died while in the abode of Lord Sebastian Flyte in Tangiers. Perhaps Lord Sebastian took him in after he kicked out his German sailor, Kurt.
Anyway, why was it brought up? I mean, the whole Tangiers thing? It was amazing how it focused me on Anthony Andrews. I mean, really a show should not give out such clues as to make one's mind sort of rapidly disconnect and fly to some other series.

Who bloody LGBT knows?

Anyway, it was a fine endings. 
(Note: there is a pun here on "innings: endings" ... not very funny... If you recall, Lord Merton - under the belief that he was critical due to pernicious anemia, told Mrs. Crawley that he had had a "good innings" --- cricket speak... Oh,  I give up!)

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The Apostasy Of Rabbi Zolli

 Rabbi Zolli (on the right)

This is a fascinating article. Just lesen ein Shtikl:

The Apostasy of Rabbi Zolli
Right after World War II, the chief rabbi of Rome scandalized fellow Jews by becoming a Christian
By Shalom Goldman
March 4, 2016 • 12:00 AM
http://www.tabletmag.com/jewish-life-and-religion/196727/the-apostasy-of-rabbi-zolli


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Duffelbag Words Revisited

reprint extract

I liked this, and I have lost touch with the concept of Duffelbag Words, which I think actually plays an important role in the country's speech today, heavily influenced by Sports and Cable TV.

 Ellen Gulbranson

... I am not referring to his [President George W. Bush's] verbal bloopers. Everyone does that. I mean that he is extremely mediocre in expressing himself. He is cursed by the prevalence of Duffelbag Words ( words derived from Sports metaphors of not a particularly brilliant type) which are among the less discrete charms of the Booboisie.
HOWEVER, the ultimate blame must be layed to the people of America ( people of the USA, that is. Canadians always complain when I imply America is the sum totality of the hemisphere). It is the people themselves who have allowed conceptions of finality, such as "culmination", "climax", and "denouement" to be collapsed into the all-around sports duffelbag expression: 
it ain't over 'til the fat lady sings, 
or, better yet,
it ain't over 'til it's over!

It is the people themselves who abbreviate "recrimination" or "regret" or "review" into the sports duffelbag expression:  
Monday morning quarterbacking.
Or consider that the Secretary of State see fit to express not that victory was achieved at long last, rather that there was but a minute left on the clock!



Inspiration thanks to: H.L.Mencken
" College football would be much more interesting if the faculty played instead of the students, and even more interesting if the trustees played. There would be a great increase in broken arms, legs and necks, and simultaneously an appreciable diminution in the loss to humanity. "  
http://www.lhup.edu/~DSIMANEK/mencken.htm


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note:
we may see fit to add such items inspired by an insipid genius, such as:

... we will see what the weather has ON TAP for the weekend...

used by TV weather announcers and comparing meteorology to beer. It is not quite exact, as one usually has a choice in a tavern of more than one beer on tap, whereas the weather does not have waitstaff come to your table and enquire whether you want the IPA Sleet or the standard Lite Rain.

Another example is "working" for "taking place, happened and is continuing... ", such as

... an accident is WORKING in the left lane at rush hour...

While emergency crews are working on the accident, the accident itself is the picture of sluggishness, demanding to be towed hither and yon, rather like those 600 pounds hefties on the Jerry Springer Show when "Tiny" (God rest his soul)  used to have obesity interventions and bring them out of their houses with a forklift.

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Continuous Transportation: Rail

 Un État de Transport Continu
inspiré par le film Transperceneige


I think this is properly called a Cog Railway.

 

Valparaiso, Chile: The Ascent

Valparaiso: The Descent

All photos are copyright Copyright Ruth and Howard Rosenthal October 2015

Ruth Rosenthal 

http://www.pbase.com/roothy123/root

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Omnium And Gatherum: March 7 2016

The Duke Of Omnium and Gatherum (Roland Culver) from The Pallisers (1974)

I seem to remember talking about "omnium and gatherum", or "omnium et gatherum", elsewhere. Briefly, it is a macaroni phrase (I don't seem to recall whether I talked about macaroni things, but I surely must have) combining Latin and English, meaning - in a macaroni sense - "of all things here gathered (in myriad number by far!)"

If I have used"macaroni" wrongly.... I doubt it.

To save time for my book writing, yet to maintain blog contact, I shall post some tid-bits omnium et gatherum from time to tempus, thus keeping a foot in both worlds - as it were- a type of promiscuous usage writing (promiscui usuo) where I sort of... keep a hand (previously "foot"!) in... both worlds...

So, The Omnia Et Gathera of March 7, 2016  (using the Latin neuter plurals ending in -a):

1)

Portland Press Herald

Automatic voter registration takes hold on West Coast
"There's no other fundamental right we have as citizens that requires you to register or fill out a form," said Alex Padilla, California's Democratic secretary of state.
By JONATHAN J. COOPER and KRISTENA HANSEN  The Associated Press
http://www.pressherald.com/2016/03/07/automatic-voter-registration-takes-hold-on-west-coast/

... Voter registration laws in the U.S. have only been around for about 150 years, said Paul Gronke, a political science professor at Reed College in Portland who specializes in voter behavior.

“Voter registration was put in place in the U.S. in the 1870s and the 1880s – and the historical record is very clear – first to hold out Catholics, southern European immigrants and to push African Americans off the rolls,” he said...

Noble causes all.

Please consider Michigan also as a very special instance of disdain for the voters.
The Flint Water Crisis was midwifed and doctored into being by a special Emergency Manager, a post with powers that override the local governments where they hold power. A law establishing such Emergency Managers was passed by the Republican legislature back in 2011 and signed by Governor Snyder. However, the people of the State held a special refendum and soundly defeated the measure.

Therefore, the anti-democracy Republicans passed a bill almost exactly the same, but attached at the last moment and small budget funding measure... and budget-funding measures are not liable to referendums!

Pro Publica
The Referendum That Might Have Headed Off Flint’s Water Crisis
Michigan’s voters decided to scrap the kind of super-empowered emergency managers who made questionable decisions in Flint – but state lawmakers found a way to revive the program.
by Alec MacGillis
ProPublica, March 4, 2016, 12 a.m.
https://www.propublica.org/article/the-referendum-that-might-have-headed-off-flints-water-crisis

... The replacement differed in some particulars — it gave local elected officials the right to propose alternatives to an emergency manager’s cuts, if they saved as much money, and to vote to remove him or her by a two-thirds vote (though only after 18 months.) But it retained the main elements of the rejected law, such as the power to modify union contracts and sell off local assets. The tweaks would only apply to future emergency managers, not the ones already governing cities and school systems. And the legislature attached a small budget appropriation to the new law, which made it impervious to referendum...

In essence, the Republican lawmakers in their legendary disdain and lack of comprehension of "scientifickal stuff" saw no difference between the Arithmetic of cutting costs and advanced Chemistry.

It is all well and good to ignore democracy. If the people of Flint had been guilty of their own poisoning, they would have themselves to blame. However, it is the Republican legislature and Governor Snyder who are to blame, being the first cause from which these evils flowed.

Let us hold them accountable.


2)
Foreign Policy
What Would a Realist World Have Looked Like?
From Iraq and WMDs to Israel and Palestine to Syria and Russia, how the United States could’ve avoided some of its biggest mistakes.
By Stephen M. Walt January 8, 2016
http://foreignpolicy.com/2016/01/08/what-would-a-realist-world-have-looked-like-iraq-syria-iran-obama-bush-clinton/

... When the Cold War ended, the United States was on good terms with all of the world’s major powers, al Qaeda was a minor nuisance, a genuine peace process was underway in the Middle East, and America was enjoying its “unipolar moment.” Power politics was supposedly becoming a thing of the past, and humankind was going to get busy getting rich in a globalized world where concerns about prosperity, democracy, and human rights would increasingly dominate the international political agenda. Liberal values were destined to spread to every corner of the globe, and if that process didn’t move fast enough, American power would help push it along.

Fast forward to today. Relations with Russia and China are increasingly confrontational; democracy is in retreat in Eastern Europe and Turkey; and the entire Middle East is going from bad to worse. The United States has spent hundreds of billions of dollars fighting in Afghanistan for 14 years, and the Taliban are holding their own and may even be winning. Two decades of U.S. mediation have left the Israeli-Palestinian “peace process” in tatters. Even the European Union — perhaps the clearest embodiment of liberal ideals on the planet — is facing unprecedented strains for which there is no easy remedy...

When you look at who is running for president, it seems that one knows nothing about policy, one has an ante-diluvian view of policy, and one is an architect of some of the most baleful policies.


3)
PBase.com
Ruth Rosenthal
http://www.pbase.com/roothy123/root

Copyright Ruth and Howard Rosenthal October 2015

At first I thought it was Photo-shopped, but it is a cafe in Valparaiso, Chile as seen from a cog-rail train ascending an urban cliff.
 
Lovely photos.



4)
Book Abacus
http://www.bookabacus.com/

Where on may find anything from Nancy Reagan (may God rest her soul):

to Thomas Aquinas:

 This Book Abacus by far alright!
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Oath Breakers

We Don't Need No Oaths!

After Scalia’s Death, Don’t Let GOP Senators Break Their Sacred Oath
Jay MichaelsonMarch 3, 2016
http://forward.com/opinion/334848/after-scalias-death-dont-let-gop-senators-break-their-sacred-oath/

Dozens of Republican senators, many professing religious piety, have stated that they will not discharge their duty set forth in the Appointments Clause of the U.S. Constitution, which reads, in part, “The president shall nominate, and by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, shall appoint… Judges of the Supreme Court.”

Have they considered the religious consequences of their inaction?

When United States senators take office, they say this oath: “I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion, and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter: So help me God.” ...

Will God or Politics win this moral issue?
I have already placed my bet.

 Senator Grassley, Another Breaker of Oaths

"Them oaths of office are subject to Sun-Set laws; they don't last ferever."

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The Oval Office (?)

I posted this October 4, 2015, and I think it was and still is spot on.
I think I would have to amend it, however, to say that Ted Cruz resembles Michael Scott's evil side, still clueless.

I was watching an old episode of The Office, and it was still fresh and funny, but even more, it seriously and entirely brought to mind the entire slate of Republican candidates for president in 2016.

I mean, surely Ben Carson is spot on as Dwight Schrute, Carly Fiorina is a dead ringer for Angela Martin, Ted Cruz in unengagingly a mirror image of the earnest and clueless Michael Scott, Jeb Bush tries valiantly to be a conservative influence just as Oscar Martinez...

And who else could Donald Trump be but old Packer!

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Super, Super, Super Tuesday!

Ted Cruz Celebrates 

Yay for Super-duper Tuesday!

Not because Trump beat Rubio (who looks like Droopy Dog to me) and Cruz (who looks like one of the evil weasels in Who Framed Roger Rabbit... I almost wrote Who Killed Roger Rabbit, because that was the name of the book and I read it about 18 months before the film came out)...
not because the outrageous Clinton  (We came, we saw, he's dead! - in reference to Mu'ammar Ghadafi ... not to the US consul killed in Benghazi) beat Bernie...

But for the coming destruction of the Neo-Conservative mess we have gotten ourselves into ever since the USSR disappeared. I know that once we got a tax refund - the peace dividend since we no longer needed to spend so much on arms - the powers that be would leave no rock unturned until they found a vermins' nest of reignited conflict on a global scale.

Read about your at David Stockman's Corner:
The Trumpster Sends The GOP/Neocon Establishment To The Dumpster
by David Stockman • March 2, 2016
http://davidstockmanscontracorner.com/the-trumpster-sends-the-gopneocon-establishment-to-the-dumpster/

Wow. Super Tuesday was an earthquake, and not just because Donald Trump ran the tables. The best thing was the complete drubbing and humiliation that voters all over America handed to the little Napoleon from Florida, Marco Rubio.
So doing, the voters began the process of ridding the nation of the GOP War Party and its neocon claque of rabid interventionists. They have held sway for nearly three decades in the Imperial City and the consequences have been deplorable...

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Shall We Gather?

 Singing to a Baby

With the birth of a new granddaughter there was a new birthday to add to the calendar - like a new nova added to the cosmology! - and I had time to play with calendars and traditions. I think I already have written that she was born on the 6th day of Jumada 'l Ula, which is one day after the birthday of Lady Zainab, who was a nurse to many people.
This aspect of Nursing reminded me of Mary nurturing Jesus; I prayed a lot of Aves for the protection of Mary in her role as a patroness for mothers, and particularly for childbirth. Now I've switched to Mary as a patroness for mothers of toddlers. She went through it and I feel certain she understands.

Since I was brought up RC (Roman Catholic), Mary has a distinctive position in my life. I mean, aren't our experiences of Dasein,  or Being-In-The-World, formed through our early years, just as Language is so formed. (Please note that I only deal with the philosophy of Heidegger when dealing with Dasein and Language and Language-like activities!)
However, I do not exclude the experience of Sayyida Zainab, for example...

I can only try to describe it as follows:  the Holy is a Shining of white light, and white light consists of all possible colors...
When one looks at white light, one cannot differentiate the red from the yellow from the blue; that can only be done if we send the light through a prism and create a rainbow of colors.
(Our reason acts similarly like a prism, and breaks up the Holy into differing "colors" or powerful influences.)

Further, the birthday was 6th Adar of the Hebrew year 5776 (my calendar calculations may be off... this is to be a year año embolismal completo of 385 days... I think.)
I think of Sarah, the wife of Abraham and mother of Isaac, for my daughter is 40 and that is somewhat older than normal for childbearing, although my daughter's maternal grandmother had children (12 of them!) at least into her 50s.  Isaac came into Sarah and Abraham's life a bit later than usual. (I think the figure is 99 years!)
And my daughter is beautiful, much like Sarah who was more beautiful than Abishag, the Shumannite, who came to King David. And to complete this whole Megillah, I consider my daughter intrepid, a heroine like Esther!

Simeon Meets Mary and Jesus at the Temple

Finally, Russian Orthodox New Style February 15th is the Meeting of the Lord, or The Presentation of Jesus at the Temple. It was at this time that the Temple priest Simeon took Jesus in his arms

and having given thanks to God, he uttered...

"Now let Thou Thy servant depart, O Lord, with peace according to Thy word, wherefore hath mine eyes beheld Thy salvation, which Thou hast prepared before the face of all peoples, a light to the enlightening of gentiles and the glory of Thy people Israel" (Lk 2: 29-32).

Righteous Simeon said to the Most Holy Virgin: "Behold, This One is set for the fall and rising up of many in Israel and for the sign spoken against, and for Thee Thyself a sword shalt pierce the soul, so that the thoughts of many hearts might be revealed" (Lk 2: 35).

(This passage is interesting. The word for sword is rhompaia, which was used by the northern barbarian Thracians, and only appears again in Revelations, where it seems to be frequently translated as "two-edged", but the actual rhompaia had a triangular cross section with one sharp edge at the apex.)


At last we come to the fact that a new-born has to be carried about and sang to, at least I think so. So I had to review my song repetory; I really did not want to have Mary Olivia Adenike growing up thinking Stephen Foster wrote "Beautiful dreamer, wake unto me; starlight and hum-hum-hum-didily-dum!"

As I did this, I reviewed my favorite hymns.
I found that as I was doing Shall We Gather At The River, a sudden intense perception of enduring life - even after death - sort of grabbed me in an enveloping hug. I had never quite felt the power of the concept of the Resurrection in this way...
It was as obvious as the training I had as a child playing Cowboys and Indians: when you were shot by a bullet or an arrow, you hit the grass, dead, and after a suitable passage of time - the battle not slowing down one bit for your personal obsequies - we children just rose up and continued the game.

So it was like that: to rise was the normal, logical, final end { actually, an Unfinal Unending} of - well, everything. And the notion of end forever was unheard of. Suddenly, the endless nature of our lives became part of my being, not a belief, but an intimate component of Me.
And I thought just a we learn language as children, perhaps we learn other great things...
And just as many of us allow our language skills to become humdrum and mediocre - if not to vanish altogether! - so may we allow that which is most close to the divine fall by the way.

I was bloody surprised, cried a tear, and went to hold the baby.

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Approaching The Holy

I do not think any person has an innate or inborn advantage over another approaching The Holy.

The person who does has trained, practiced, educated themselves in the ways of The Holy. The others have spent time learning the ways of the world.

The Year 2017

I have posted on this topic before, so this is not something new following on the outcome of Super Tuesday voting in the States; it is something I have been aware of since Spring 2015.

So in the spring of 2015 I sat here at the computer and wondered what the future would be like.
I had memories of the past, so that was covered. I was aware of the present. But what about the future.

I had an experience which was - in my mind - exactly equivalent to that I had 2 or 3 years ago at a baseball game in the autumn, Detroit Tigers versus Minnesota Twins (I think).
My friend and I were at the game. We decided to bet on the outcome of the game.

I "looked" and saw 0,1,2 were like letters with extremely light darkness... and this I felt meant "unlikely"... (realize that this was happening within less than 10 seconds... probably less than 5 seconds)... so a tie (if such a thing is possible) and a win by either team of 1 or 2 was out.

I saw that 4, 5, 6, and the later numbers melted into obscurity, and I interpreted this to mean (again, 5 seconds to make a decision!) not probable.
That left the number 3 !

And the number "3" was in bold type and emphasized!!!  3 was there, no doubt. So I lifted up my middle finger,  fourth, and fifth finger to indicate that "3 runs" would be the difference between the two teams. I said "Detroit!", meaning Detroit Tigers by three.
This was an odd way to left up one's fingers, which occurred to me at the time. One would life up the index, middle, and fourth, I should think.

Of course, the Detroits won by exactly 3 runs.

Also - of course! - I do not believe for one minute in foretelling the future.

We all intuit things. Some of us try to train intuitions, some do not. Those that do not, do not see much at all, other than that which is right in front of their eyes..., so they think.

So what about 2017?
At first, I thought it might be about my own health: perhaps I were to be sick, or perhaps to die in 2017. Well, even though my doctors conspire to make it so, I do not think anymore that that is the thing which will happen in 2017.

My granddaughter was born this year. That is not 2017. And I think I have already written about the vision I had when I looked at my daughter and her long-to-yet-happen future husband back when they were going to the high school senior prom.
In case you do not remember, I saw something I could not describe. I thought I would see something like a joining together of the races of the world in joy and harmony... but that is not what I saw; I saw a future promise, and I was a bit astounded by the whole thing.

Even when they had parted ways, even when some had established their own families, even after many years, death, and sickness, somehow they did come together. When they did so, I suddenly remembered what I had seen many years ago at the senior prom......

And I have told this stories a number of times since. Not a great many times; I have not become an Ancient Mariner and sequester the unhappy to listen to me. But I have repeated it. And no one has ever thought it important enough to talk to me about it.

So also with 2017.

Never ask.
I shall never tell, other than when I visualize the years, in the spring of 2015, there was a black hole where 2017 should have been. Since you probably do not "visualize" the years, it all means nothing.
I myself am not very smart or adept at understanding.
What I say is surmise, as unsubstantial as snow in spring.

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