Category Archives: Americana

At my first Bernie rally

Americana, Around home, Politics

Bernie-5“because I’m tired of the puppet show, tired of the games Democrats and Republicans play pretending to be enemies until their corporate bosses need something passed. Then it gets passed really easily.” Chris Vardijan at the Vallejo Bernie Rally, as quoted in the Santa Rosa Press Democrat.

“Young people ought to have the right to vote for their future, ” Bernie Sanders at the San Jose Rally.

I went to a Bernie Rally last Wednesday…Bernie-2 and somewhere in the middle of his speech, around when he was talking about going all the way to the Convention, Bernie said something like, “I have the support of more young people than any other candidate and young people ought to have the right to vote for their future”. It brought me up short. My generation, the Greater Baby Boomer Generation for lack of a better descriptor, has not been a good steward of their future, or our planet, or our democracy, or, even, the economy in whose name we have been trashing our planet and distorting our democracy. Yet we still think we know best. Huge numbers of young people have been brought  into the system and are supporting Bernie because they don’t think we do know best, they do not like our decisions for their future, and as Bernie points out, it is really their future that we are all voting on.

When I asked the Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders for Bernie kids why they were for Bernie, they said “That’s easy, Education and the Economy.” That is at the top of their list because education and an economy that works for them is what they value. What we think and say we can afford, as individuals and as a nation, depends on what we value. When Hillary says we can not afford to have free college education, it is because that is not something she values enough to move up her list and these young people know it. These kids do not want perpetual war – and it has been perpetual war since most of them were alive – they do not consider war valuable and Hillary does, she thinks ISIS or Islamic Fundamentalism, or whatever you want to call it, is a major threat to the United States. I think she is wrong, I think educating our children and protecting our planet is more important to our long-term survival than bombing tribal chiefs in Afghanistan, or the Middle East, or North Africa, or even Sub Saharan Africa, but what I think isn’t particularly important, what is important is what these young people think and they think Hillary is wrong.But it wasn’t only young people at the Rally, there were lots of what we used to call minorities and a sprinkling of older people.IMG_6987-Edit

When I asked the woman standing next to me, a self-described healer from Santa Cruz about my age, why she is for Bernie,she said, “He is a real human being not a politician pretending to be human.” At the Rally, Bernie’s passion is not canned, his message is deeply felt – although it seems to be his standard stump speech – and it resonates with this crowd as being much truer than an applause line. He is not a particularly good speaker, looking down often at his notes – and like everybody else there, I am sure they were his notes and not a focus group tested line written by a speechwriter – but that only adds to his authenticity. This is a major part of Bernie’s allure, one sign said Not polished, not packaged, not for sale, Bernie Sanders, and maybe that lack of packaging and professionalism – as shallow as it is – along with his age, is part of why I find it hard to be as excited about Bernie as I was about Obama. The first rally I went to for Obama was about as big as this rally and it wasn’t any better organized but it was in a nightclub in May 2007 – eight months before the first primary – and this rally was in the hot sun, four and a half months after that primary.

The Rally itself was in a strange court, on the Santa Clara County Fairground, with stands seating maybe 150 people each, facing each other – and Bernie – at right angles, but most of us stood on the macadam nearby, and it was hot as hell in the sun. When I got back on the Freeway on the way home, the car thermometer said 94° so it must have been close to 90° on the court with no shade, after parking in a dirt parking lot – for ten bucks – and walking about a mile, including a long dirt back alley – past a dirt bike park and an even stranger looking paintball court – before we got to the Secret Service checkpoint. Bernie-4I was worried it would turn people off but that was obviously just projection on my part. A general cognitive dissonance reduction field must have cranked in because nobody seemed particularly upset. Although nobody seemed particularly joyous either. This seemed less like a party than a group of people who were very aware that they are getting the short end of the stick. They listened to Bernie and cheered for Bernie because they believe him and, more importantly, they know he believes in them. Bernie2FiveThirtyEight gives Hillary a 93% percent chance of winning California and that would almost certainly give her the nomination. That brings up the question, Will Bernie’s supporters switch to Hillary? and I think, in most cases, No!  These do not, in the overwhelming majority, seem like the usual political junkies. They are people who think Hillary is part of the puppet show. They do not seem like a group who will easily switch over to the Establishment’s choice for the nominee and Bernie did not seem like the kind of politician who will go quietly into the night. He is more concerned about the message and the cause than the party and so are most of his followers.  

Bitterwater, 58, 33, then darkness cont.

Americana

Highway 33Leaving the Carrizo Plain, driving east on Highway 58, I drive over an unnamed pass – at least an unnamed pass for me – in the Temblor Range and drive down into the Great Central Valley. The Temblor Range is parallel to and just east of the San Andreas Fault and up until I started writing this, I thought it was the Trembler Range (for what I think are obvious reasons).  But, a half an hour later, I found out that temblor means earthquake in Spanish so it turns out that this is sort of Trembler Range after all.

The range itself is an uplifted section of an old seabed called the Franciscan Complex. To quote Roadside Geology of Northern and Central California, The Franciscan complex is one of the world’s grand messes. It is a wild assortment of sedimentary rocks, deposited in seawater at many depths and in widely separated parts of the ocean, along with generous slices of the basalt ocean floor. Between 24 million years ago and 5 million years ago, or so, continental North America ended east of here, but the continent and the North American Plate are not the same thing and the plate, which included most of the continent of North America, also included a slice of the shallow sea to the west. In the picture above, the layers that are now almost vertical, were laid down – underwater and horizontally – in that shallow sea.

Sometime around 5 million years ago, the Farallon Plate, which was being pushed east by the Pacific Plate, crashed into the North American Plate which was being pushed west by the spreading Mid-Atlantic  Ridge. By way of background, the plates under continents, the parts of the earth that are high and dry,  are lighter and are floating higher on the Earth’s mantle than the underwater plates. When two plates with continents crash into each other, like India and Asia, they form mountains, like the Himalayas.   When two plates, one heavier and underwater and the other higher with dry land, the heavier plate dives under the lighter plate. So, when the Farallon Plate crashed into the lighter, North American Plate, it dove back down into the mantle and slid under the North American Plate. Over the following millions of years, that shallow sea bottom to the west of North America,  was then raised up, a little like a bow wave on a boat, by the  Farallon Plate sliding under North American. I love that. The earth is just so alive, it is not just the stuff living on the earth that is alive, the earth, itself, is alive. This part of the world, that was once underwater, is now a low mountain chain, and that makes a very drivable section of road as it winds down through, first scrublands, and then grasslands, dropping into the Central Valley.   Highway 33-2Highway 33-4

As the road drops, I start seeing abandoned oil fields that are being reclaimed by cattle ranchers. Going by, I wonder how toxic these fields still are and think that, while the cattle might not mind, they are probably concentrating the toxins, unbeknown to the final user, probably a human eating a hamburger.  Highway 33-3

When I reach Highway 33, I turn north and start driving through miles of abandoned and refurbished rocking horses as well as lots of new pipes and towers.  This is the  Midway-Sunset Oil Field, the largest oilfield in California. It was discovered in 1894, and, so far, has produced about 3 billion barrels of oil or, to put it another way, that is very, very, roughly 390 million tons of CO2 depending on the oil’s end use. Highway 33-5This is not a very pretty place and it smells slightly of sulfur but it is part of the cost of our world and I do not want to demonize the pusher when the real problem is the addict and the society that made that addict. I am one of the addicts, I drove down here after all, chugging through the hydrocarbons. Of course, I don’t want to blame myself for this place, but that would be disingenuous, this place is here because we want the nicely packaged energy. Way back in the 70s, when President Jimmy Carter turned the White House heat down, put on a sweater, and told us to do the same – and we found out that the country didn’t want practical Mr. Rogers when Harold Hill, in an immaculate dark suit, was telling us “It’s morning in America” – way back then, a friend of mine said “This isn’t going to end well, nobody wants to give up their toaster.”

Highway 33-6

Even people in countries that don’t yet have their toasters, want them. We live a life of comfort and luxury that is both so ubiquitous as to be unnoticed, and unsustainable. We are burning through resources, not just fossil fuels, but all the earth’s resources, like there is no tomorrow. We like to think that we are the smart animals and that we are different, but we are like any other animal without predators, we are multiplying until the environment can no longer support us. It is interesting to watch, in a terrifying way.

I drive north on Highway 33 and clear the oil fields. It is late in the afternoon, I have the car windows down and the air is soft as I start driving through grasslands that go on for miles. It is breathtaking, and my first, reflexive, thought is This is paradise lost. Highway 33-9Highway 33-8Highway 33-7

The trouble with Trump

Americana, Politics

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 We shouldn’t have ever gone into Iraq and we shouldn’t there now. It’s just a mess. We’ve spent hundreds of millions that could have been used on infrastructure and schools. Donald Trump on the Iraq war

I have written alot on defending people who are Trump supporters and, by inference, defending Trump. I don’t have too much of a problem with most of what Trump says he will do when if he is elected President, but I do have a big problem with his character and his judgement. Most of the positions he is criticized for are really no worse than, say, Jeb! and he is way better than Cruz – who now seems to be the Republican Establishment candidate of choice – on almost everything (I know, I know, those are pretty low bars). Yes, he is way, way, overboard on immigration but immigration is a real problem that nobody on the Republican side seems to be willing to address in any meaningful and feasible way and the alleged moderate, John Kasich, is just about as bad telling the Feds he doesn’t want any Syrians in his state.

The problem with Trump isn’t his positions or lack of detailed plans, it is his tolerance, even promotion, of violence as a legitimate response to something he doesn’t like. It is his intolerance of dissent. Years ago, I took a backpacking medicine course, and the most important thing I remember was “When something happens, spread calm.” Trump is the opposite, he promotes upset. He promotes thuggery and discord. At his rallies, when trouble arises, he escalates the situation. When a fifteen year girl gets pepper sprayed, or a guy being escorted out of a rally gets coldcocked, he celebrates it. When he doesn’t like what a person does, he belittles them. It is effective as a campaign tactic but I suspect it would be much less effective when trying to build alliances.

Trump is a businessman, how good, I don’t really know although I am pretty sure he is better than average. However, being successful at business does not translate into being successful at governing. Warren Harding and Herbert Hoover were both very successful in business but were unsuccessful as Presidents. Harry Truman, who is on everybody’s short list of successful Presidents, went into politics because he went bankrupt in business. As a businessman, when a deal goes sour or becomes too difficult, Trump could walk away or declare bankruptcy, that is not an option when running the country and certainly promoting violence isn’t.

Driving to the Peterson and back, talking politics

Americana, Politics
Peterson (1 of 1)
The Bruce Meyer Family Gallery with a show of outstanding cars all painted the same color silver.

A week or so ago, Malcolm Pearson and I drove down to Los Angeles and back. We wanted to see the newly renovated Peterson Automotive Museum and driving to Los Angeles and back in the same day seemed like the best way to do it even though it makes for a long day, about 18 to 19 hours, with only about one third of it at the museum. That is a long time for two opinionated guys, often on different sides of the political spectrum, to spend together without arguing.  We talked about our kids, schools, the Warriors, Donald Trump and single payer healthcare (among other things) and we agreed on almost everything starting with our kids and grandkids being superior human beings.

As an aside, I have a theory on the superior human being thing, and I am serious here, I think our kids and grandkids really are superior human beings, not to their contemporaries, but to my generation. This is a generation whose mothers – not always but alot – didn’t smoke or drink when they were pregnant. and most of my generation were carried by mothers who did both. Living a clean life during pregnancy does make a difference, just like we were told by the government. End aside.

Malcolm is an emphatic Moderate and I am a card-carrying Lefty, so it is easy for our conversations to slip into arguments and it often has during one of our all day trips to some auto related event,  but that didn’t happen on this trip much to our mutual amusement and pleasure. Up until a couple of years ago, I always thought of Malcolm as a Conservative but a) I think he has moderated and b) he Self Identifies as a Moderate and c) I believe everybody has the inalienable right to Self Identify. I Self Identify as a Bernie Sanders Liberal because he is the only serious candidate with whom I have totally agreed. “Global Climate Change is the biggest threat to our security,” check; “Single Payer health Insurance”, check; “A living minimum wage,” check; check; check.

On this trip, we had Trump to agree on. We agreed that he is – to quote Malcolm’s daughter, Emma –  an “ugly, hairy chimp’s butt”, but we also agreed that Trump didn’t just come out of thin air, we agreed that there is a reason for Trump that most of the political establishment doesn’t want to understand. I get two or three emails a day pointing out something Trump said as proof of how stupid he is. My cue – or whatever it is called – on facebook is chock-a-block full of posts badmouthing Trump and, often, his followers. The political establishment says that the people voting for Trump are stupid and my corner of the netverse agrees. Despite that – or, maybe, because of it – both Malcolm and I agreed that the people voting for the establishment-authorized candidates, expecting to get a different result this time, are really the stupid ones. Trump is the political equivalent of a disruptive technology; if Trump were to get elected, things would change (maybe, probably, not for the better, but they would change and Trump’s supporters want change).

 

The Oligarchy Strikes Back

Americana, Current Affairs, Politics

USA USA (1 of 1)What we are seeing this election season, with Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump, is two political outsiders trying to take political power away from the Oligarchy. I want to say this as neutrally as possible because I know that Oligarchy is a loaded word, almost always in the negative. In this case, however, I don’t mean it to be. I’m using Oligarchy in the strict definition of a small group of people having control of a country, organization, or institution, and that is not always bad (or good).

The United States was founded as an Oligarchy with only property-owning white men being able to vote. That was not an oversight, it was done to limit the power of people. In terms of the form of our institutions, we have become more Democratic since then. First the property owning qualification was eliminated giving all white men the vote, then black men were also given the vote by the Fifteenth Amendment. Finally, 130 years after our founding, women were given the right to vote with the Nineteenth Amendment. Still, there has always been the subtext of limiting what seemed like the people’s power, with literacy tests, poll taxes, picture ID requirements, Citizen United, and in the Democratic Party, Superdelegates.

I don’t want to give the impression that I think the Oligarchy is monolithic, I don’t, however they do have common interests and Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders is a threat to those interests and the Oligarchy is fighting back.