Turning in the Widening Gyre

While Musk's wrecking ball destroys the government, Trump has turned to other things like the "great TV" of joining his comrade Vance in publicly humiliating poor Zelensky. While Trump increasingly aligns with Putin, the US is without "leaders" who care about the lives they're ruining. Musk, who bought this election for Trump, is profiting from this debacle. I hate to draw parallels to 1930's Germany, but there are many. 

Fear of Flying

I took a fear of flying class after Boeing merged, relinquishing its impeccable singular identity. We flew to another State as our final exam. In those days, plane travel was still lovely. The seats were upholstered and cushiony, and leg room and aisles were spacious. No one was crowded on top of anyone else. Flight attendants wore beautiful outfits, and the food they brought was exquisite. 

    Still, I had become terrified of flying as a teenager. I could think of no way to get on a plane without drugs. And I didn't have drugs. This meant I wouldn't fly, couldn't fly without risking a full-fledged panic attack. What we learned in the class was that fear of flying was often related to childhood and control. And they gave us techniques to understand airplane flight and cope with fear. One technique is so simple yet we forget, especially when we're afraid - breathe.

    I once worked at Boeing in Seattle when its safety measures were still admirable. But that's another story.

"The only thing that can relieve suffering is joy.

Go inside and find the place where there is joy and the pain will go away." 

                                -- Joseph Campbell

I Hope I'm Wrong

On inauguration day, I noticed something small and brightly colored on the floor behind a cabinet. Then I realized that it was my "I Voted" sticker. 

       Every night since the election, I've had nightmares. They've only gotten worse. I don't know how this country can survive Trump, Musk and entourage. In two and a half short weeks they have swept through one governmental department after another and no one seems able to stop them. Steve Bannon calls it their “flood the zone” strategy.  

        There seem to be no checks and balances. Musk’s Ketamine behavior has concerned me most even before the election. He is not only profiting from his unelected position, but by all reports “indifferent” to “gleeful” about the lives he’s destroying. Even Head Start had to shut down.  

         Now, finally, people are beginning to protest. But what good will this do? This has not been a partisan problem. Everyone should have seen it coming. How can the United States survive this? I took the back off my sticker and stuck it on the wall. But it's lopsided like a sinking ship. I did not watch the inauguration. 

Think Twice Before Using AI to Write

So I was writing an email when AI decided to underline two separate phrases. That did it. 

        As usual, I had to turn it and spell check off. Technology has a mind of its own. But that doesn't mean we need to "listen". Grammarly, for example, has been proven to be often inaccurate. And there is such a thing as "voice" in writing. It's your own unique way of expressing yourself. Your writing should sound like you - not an AI.

        I would advise, if you can write at all, do not use AI to write - at least not yet. It's in its infancy and has learned from unprofessional writing.

Tomorrow's Paradox

Each year I try to write something for the birthday of Martin Luther King, Jr. Although it is usually celebrated today, this year it's tomorrow – the day of Trump's inauguration. Dr King exemplified peace, equality, justice. Trump represents the opposite. He brings with him a retinue of homogeneous billionaires who care more for their lower taxes and special interests than the American people.

     Along with many others, I have tried to write about this and warn of the dangerous waters we are walking into. Now it is not only Trump, but his entourage that concerns those who share my opinion. Already the tide has changed. This country has been an expanding plutocracy for years. There are now over 800 US billionaires, 15 who have more than 100 billion. This number will only increase along with the number of homeless the supreme court has ordered off our streets.

     To have more poor and homeless and less diversity was not Dr King's objective. I'd like to believe that the arc of the moral universe bends toward justice, but it is difficult to hold that truth.

        “The arc of the moral universe is long but it bends toward justice.”

                        Martin Luther King, Jr

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of happiness.”

                                The Declaration of Independence

Identity Theft

I've had a social security number since I was 9 and now someone's using it. And there are 158 women with my exact name, including one who's assumed it.

        My data has been stolen in two data breaches in the last year, as well as the very mean janitor where I used to live threw away three-quarters of my belongings as I was moving. I didn't realize until I was resettled that even two plastic file cabinets containing my personal data had vanished. So this was bound to happen.

        Now 'authorities' tell me countless places to contact, but no way to stop it. I've been told that, in addition to freezing my credit, etc, I should file a report with the police, which seems absurd. The police are local.

        I'd like to offer some advice. But a person can do everything right and still end up with an impossible-to-fix conundrum. Oh, and the person who has allegedly been using my name and social security number is one of only 32 others with her own name. Lucky her. 

        Other victims of identity theft have had it worse. One woman did top secret drops of $200,000 a time to FBI imposters and lost over $600,000. 

        I've never had money to steal.

 

In the Wake of Disaster, How to Rebuild

Steve Martin made a movie L.A. Story which Rotten Tomatoes gave a 98 and dubbed a "love letter" to L.A. I also love Los Angeles. It's so beautiful that when I first saw it from the mountain we were driving in on, I cried. I lived there twice. I've had special friends there. Something about it makes people kind.

         Although magical things can happen, some of which I've written about, it's difficult to live there. Along with the ocean, flowering trees and hummingbirds are the heat and earthquakes. Angelenos always say they're expecting "the big one" (earthquake). And flash floods can catch you off-guard. They can seem innocuous – like water you can drive through. My best friend was almost swept away in one. Sometimes you can just feel the howling of the desert. And there have been water challenges (as chronicled in the incomparable Chinatown). And the wind is wild (as I coincidentally mentioned in my last post). But you just don't expect this kind of disaster at this magnitude. Some call it a "climate disaster shotgun that humans helped load."*

        Not to minimize the loss of so many, which is great and tragic, some consider this is a story of trying to survive in conditions too wild for those adverse to danger. According to L.A. writer Carla Hall, Los Angeles is the “only megacity in the world that has mountain lions roaming the streets.” As proven by researchers, years of climate change have brought dramatic shifts between record-breaking heat and heavy rain. According to UCLA climate scientists, that and drought have become a “perfect storm of risks.” Yet Mayor Karen Bass is promising to “aggressively rebuild....Red tape, bureaucracy, all of it must go.” And Governor Newsom is suspending environmental laws for his proposed 'Marshall Plan' to rebuild.

     

*R. Fonseca, L.A. Times

Sound Can Transform or Destroy

Some of the crowd crouched on the floor holding their ears. I stuffed mine with cotton and covered them with two programs and my hands. Still, most of us just stood and listened. That was The Fillmore West when Lee Michaels opened with "You Know What I Mean" on his 'beefed-up electronic organ' with pre and power amps and JBL speakers so powerful, the walls of that huge auditorium vibrated. Although less amplified Ron Wood, Ronnie Lane and Rod Stewart with The Faces followed, it's still surprising anyone left with their hearing intact.
      I love sound. Here the wind is almost as thrilling as it was in the California desert. And although thunderstorms are not as powerful or frequent as they were, they're still exquisite. Sometimes I can hear the sound of rain on the roof and wonder How can anyone not be enthralled?
     I was raised on music in the nightclubs of childhood and the many accomplished musicians and vocalists I've known. Sound is a transformative sense that can fill a day with wonder.
    So if I say that three of the most ethereal voices I've heard were, coincidentally, where I was living, I know they were extraordinary.
    Unfortunately, we are bombarded with sounds that would be better off unheard, which is when I wear the strongest earplugs and noise-canceling headphones I can find. It is well-documented that noise can not only destroy our hearing but make us ill. So listen when you can to the magic of natural sound. And remember to wear earplugs to rock, hip hop, new wave - anything but classical concerts so that like me you will still be able to appreciate the nuances of the gift of sound.

From War on Poverty to Poverty - Carter to Reagan and Continued Demise of Middle Class

    This section about Carter was from L.Z. Granderson's Tribute to Frankie Beverly. 

 "When Frankie Beverly, lead singer of Maze, passed away, I thought of...his recordings from one November night in 1980 at the Saenger Theater. His album "Live in New Orleans" captured more than a concert. It captured a turning point in history. President Carter had lost his reelection bid barely a week earlier. Nearly 60% of Orleans Parish, where Beverly was recording, voted for Carter. The GDP grew a stunning 4.6% during Carter's only term, but inflation was 13% as was the poverty rate. His opponent, Ronald Reagan, blamed social programs and welfare recipients for the economic woes. 

        When Reagan first workshopped that rhetoric, in his 1966 campaign for governor of California, the war on poverty" had just begun; the overall poverty rate was 17%, but for Black America in 1965 it was more than 40%. By 1980, Reagan and his party had a clear record of dislike for the war on poverty and those it intended to help. He cut more than $22 billion from social programs within his first two years. And when Reagan left the White House, the country's poverty rate was back up to its highest since -- wait for it -- 1965.

     In "New Orleans in 1980, Beverly singing 'we'll get through these changing times' was about all of this and the road ahead. His music was both the calm before the storm and the tool needed to find peace in the middle of it. That is why 'Joy and Pain' -- the fourth track on the live album -- sounds less like an R&B concert and more like a revival."

    "By the time "Live in New Orleans" was released in 1981, nearly 1 in 7 Americans had plunged into poverty, crack was appearing in major cities and the U.S. divorce rate was at its peak. Beverly's music kept the Black community's spirits lifted -- much in the way Bruce Springsteen and John Mellencamp became voices for the white working class during this same era." (My excerpt from article by LZ Granderson, Los Angeles Times - 9/13/24)

 

 Also, this from Tom Putnam says it best:"Jimmy Carter's Humility Hurt His Political Career. It Also Made Him Remarkable" https://www.wbur.org/cognoscenti/2024/12/30/remembrance-of-president-jimmy-carter-tom-putnam