The capacity for violence is an inherently human trait, and therefore not unique to any particular political affiliation. In a curious irony, early reports say the shooter was a registered Republican.

This act, apart from the pain of loss and suffering inflicted on the murdered and wounded and their families, only serves to further roil what was already an extremely contentious, indeed dangerous, race.

I don't expect either candidate or party to tone down their rhetoric. I regret that this incident occurred at all, but I reject the claim by some that Democratic campaign rhetoric incited it. It seems to me that Republican insistence that the 2nd Amendment is the last defense against tyranny, and its steadfast resistance to efforts to regulate the ownership of semi-automatic rifles, are more proximately responsible for political violence than anything uttered by the Biden campaign.

A party already prone to conspiracy theories is likely to make this event into something not remotely what it likely really was, an all too familiar story of a young man with a gun, a grievance and insufficient maturity and intellect to responsibly own a weapon, with the violent and tragic consequences that too often ensue.

If anything, I expect Republican rhetoric to grow more extreme. How that resonates with voters not already in Trump's camp, I don't know. I hope it doesn't.

How it resonates with young men armed with semi-automatic rifles and nurturing their own grievances is a different, and more troubling question.

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Originally posted at Nice Marmot 05:58 Sunday, 14 July 2024

Picked a couple of pounds of blueberries yesterday. It was a pleasant experience. There was only one other family in the field with us, no bugs to speak of, plenty of berries and it wasn't hot. The sun was kind of intense, but there was a breeze.

The farm store offered a range of baked goods, jams and jellies. I had a cookie concoction consisting of an oatmeal cookie with white chocolate chips (Yes, I know. It's not "chocolate."), and a lemon glaze. I'm counting on the fiber and protein content of the oatmeal making it "healthy," though I know that's just wishful thinking.

We stopped by a former firehouse in Burdett, NY that has been converted to kind of an indoor farmer's market. All local or regional products. Very pricey, but it supports local agriculture. Bought some mushrooms, a steak and an onion. Dinner tonight.

ars technica has a piece on sea level rise in the southeast. The St Johns Riverkeeper, Lisa Rinamen is quoted in it. I know Lisa and I support the St Johns and Matanzas riverkeepers. None of this is really a surprise, apart perhaps from the increasing rate, though even that was anticipated by some. Historically, sea level rise occurs in pulses, periods of rapid rise.

But we keep shoveling taxpayer money into the sea. At best, it might buy time, but we waste that time and that money by doing nothing meaningful to address the risk. But Florida faces so many risks that it's doing nothing about that it's hard to single out sea level rise.

What's going to happen to the housing market when you can't get insurance, and therefore can't get a mortgage? We're one major hurricane away from an insurance industry collapse. We will learn just how "effective" those "reforms" the legislature enacted will be. They chiefly make it easier for insurance companies to deny claims, or under-compensate claims, and make it harder to sue insurance companies.

Then there's the heat, which I guess we're just going to ignore.

And the generation of Republican environmental stewardship that led to things like the Piney Point environmental disaster. There's more where that came from, as the saying goes.

They tell us they don't get much snow around here anymore. My kids and grandkids are all in Florida, or I'd seriously consider, I mean seriously consider pulling up stakes and moving up here. Taxes are higher. Prices are higher. Much of rural upstate New York can be Trump country, but it feels less rabid than Florida. The state has the opposite problem from Florida with a seemingly permanent Democratic majority in the legislature because of NYC, but the governor's office flips back and forth from time to time. This state isn't laser-focused on culture war issues and the governor's political ambitions.

And the views. I asked the guy at the blueberry farm if he kind of takes the scenery for granted. He's lived here all his life, so he allowed that he probably does. I don't know how long it'd take before I stopped being moved by it. Florida is claustrophobic, which may go some way toward explaining why it's so insane. Even in "rural" Florida, it's mostly just flat. There are no expansive vistas that can open your mind and your heart. Just the heat, the humidity, the mosquitoes, the gators and all the invasive exotic pets, and the selfish cruelty of its Republican ruling class.

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Originally posted at Nice Marmot 08:09 Saturday, 13 July 2024

Mitzi spotted this on the wall this morning. I took the opportunity to play with the TG-6. I haven't practiced very much using the macro feature. This is a single frame using the flash. I took some stacked images using the LED lamp, but I thought this one showed the eyes a bit better.

Anyway, not a great photo, but something I don't see very often at home.

Rained quite a bit yesterday, but we got our little hike in early. I guess we're picking blueberries today. Maybe. Well, Mitzi is anyway.

We watched the utterly forgettable Family Plan on Apple TV+ last night. They have some kind of Samsung TV streaming service on the smart TV here, and we've watched some of its programming. It's pretty generic, decade or more older reality TV stuff, a couple of movie channels that seem to play the same old movies over and over. So I've been streaming movies from my iPhone via AirPlay.

We watched The Good German the night before, before I knew George Clooney was adding his voice to the cacophony of chaos.

The Good German deals with, as a plot element, Operation Paper Clip. In the movie, a file Clooney is looking for mentions that the contents were moved to Operation Overcast. I hadn't heard of that before, so I wondered if it was a fictional creation, or something real. Turns out, was the official name of Operation Paperclip, which was something that emerged because of all the paperclips holding all the dossiers together.

Anyway, looking into that led me to Operation Paperclip: The Secret Intelligence Program that Brought Nazi Scientists to America, by Annie Jacobsen. That's available on Kindle Unlimited, so I've started that book. I was somewhat aware of the effort to enlist former Nazi scientists in American research efforts after the war, but I wasn't aware of the extent of it, mostly Von Braun and the rocket people. It was far more extensive than that, and involved some pretty unsavory people.

(Anecdotally, one of the gunners mate (missiles) techs aboard BAINBRIDGE (CGN-25, not the DDG) told me that the launcher logic sequencer for the Mk 10 launcher was designed by a former German scientist or engineer. He supposedly had a breakdown or went nuts after designing it, because it was so complex. No idea if there's anything to that story, but it stayed with me.)

Before getting into the Paperclip book, I went looking for something in my Apple Books collection, and started reading The End: The Defiance and Destruction of Hitler's Germany 1944-45, by Ian Kershaw.

So I have three books going right now, Heather Cox Richardson's, Jacobsen's and Kershaw's.

They are all kind of related in the sense that I'm trying to understand how supposedly good people can be persuaded to do horrible things, go on to do them with great efficiency, and how, after a conflict, we can look the other way and do business with people who did horrible things. Also, how people who did horrible things are sometimes remediated into being somehow "respectable" people. This also speaks to the Confederacy, Robert E. Lee, "heritage not hate," and so on.

Everything is contingent, I guess.

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Originally posted at Nice Marmot 08:19 Friday, 12 July 2024

It was a short hike, but it was lovely. Since the gorge is right in the middle of town, it gets a lot of traffic. A lot of steps, but otherwise easy.

We stuck around and had lunch at the Moosewood vegetarian/vegan restaurant. I had a nice black bean burger.

We stopped by the Ithaca town hall to see if the clerk that issued us our marriage license still worked there. She does not, she retired about five years ago. The woman we spoke to sees her often and will let her know we stopped by. When we received our marriage certificate, the clerk had enclosed a very nice note and invited us to stop by anytime we were in town. We've been to Ithaca many times since then, but never really made the time to drop by. Today we did.

It's been cloudy and overcast most of the day. On the ride home we could see rain off in the distance. Even cloudy, it's beautiful.

I suppose I could come to take these vistas for granted again eventually, but for now they continue to enthrall. There's so much ugliness in the world, I'm grateful for the beauty that nature offers.

Originally posted at Nice Marmot 14:25 Thursday, 11 July 2024

Went to Corning, New York yesterday, about fifty minutes from here. We visited the Corning Glass Museum, our first visit since 2017 when we stopped in on our wedding road trip. Mitzi still had the paper map and program from that visit, much to the delight of the young lady at the admission desk. She asked if she could keep them.

We toured the museum, focusing on the things we hadn't seen the first time. It's a large museum and full of fascinating artifacts, art and exhibits. Unique, perhaps, in that respect.

It also has a very large gift shop. Mitzi managed to escape unscathed, while I bought a "crystal ball" and a glass globe.

From there, we went into Corning proper and had a nice lunch at an Italian restaurant. I had an Italian sausage sub, while Mitzi had a small pizza. It's an authentic Italian restaurant, family owned and operated. Dessert was a delicious cannoli, that I probably should have skipped.

Mitzi saw a doe with two fawns in the yard yesterday morning. We saw them later in the evening down by the creek. We also saw a rabbit when we got back from the museum. So we've seen a fairly representative sample of common rural New York fauna, a woodchuck, skunk, rabbit and deer. There's a nesting pair of robins outside as well, who keep a wary eye on me when I'm in the hammock.

We're going to hike Cascadilla gorge this morning, also called Giant's Staircase because it's mostly steps. Looks like three quarters of a mile each way, so we'll go up first, then turn around and come back down and go look for lunch in Ithaca.

We're having dinner in a microbrewery tonight, which is supposed to feature live entertainment.

Only a couple more days here, then we'll head up to Geneva for our last week of vacation.

Originally posted at Nice Marmot 08:25 Thursday, 11 July 2024

I was a longtime subscriber of The NY Times in the digital era. I was not a paper (dead-tree) subscriber at any time. I had high respect for the reporting of the Times, notwithstanding the Judith Miller episode, which, in hindsight, should have been a clue.

I unsubscribed in April, 2022 and wrote about it in September. Lately, I've been reading about other folks unsubscribing.

I don't miss the reporting, I play Quartiles on Apple News+ rather than Wordle. (Current streak: 60 days. Longest streak: 60 days. Expert rate: 100%) There are other sources of good journalism, though I do recognize that there are infinitely many more sources of bad journalism.

I've managed to mostly stuff the Biden candidacy into some locked compartment in my mind. I have no say in the decision or outcome, and I will vote against Donald Trump in November regardless of who the candidate is. Any candidate the Democrats would run would be flawed and problematic in some way, and the mainstream press would make that somehow equivalent to the horror that is Donald J. Trump.

So I just don't think about it.

I'm still struggling with the Supreme Court decisions. In many ways, that's a far worse development than turmoil within the Democratic Party, yet it gets very little oxygen. That's the problem with a journalism industry built on capitalism, competing in an attention economy. We are fucked six ways from Sunday, but there's nothing to do about it now, structurally.

We must defeat Donald J. Trump, and we must place a potential Trump presidency within the context of the entirely new constitutional regime invented out of whole cloth by those six "originalist" liars on the court.

Most of the mainstream press will continue to focus on Democratic dysfunction. It will be up to citizens to write letters to the editor of local papers, using social media, speaking out in public forums, and talking to friends, neighbors and acquaintances, as civility may allow.

Heather Cox Richardson is a good source of information and historical context in this matter. Today's post is a good example. If you're not subscribed to her RSS feed, please add it. (I do get an empty entry every day, along with the day's post. She generally posts every day, if only to report that she has nothing to post that day.)

I don't know what's going to happen in the fall. I know I can make myself genuinely sick with worry. I'm trying not to. I'll do my best to "keep the faith," and do my best to help democracy and the rule of law to prevail.

I hope you will too.

Originally posted at Nice Marmot 06:57 Wednesday, 10 July 2024

Heather Cox Richardson writes about the 14th Amendment and the claims Republicans are making about "fetal personhood."

But it was her mention of the "equal protection" clause that caught my eye.

It seems to me, and perhaps this has already been mentioned elsewhere, that any notion of presidential immunity conflicts with the 14th Amendment and the equal protection clause.

Are we not, as citizens, entitled to the protection of the law when it is violated by the president?

I have the decision open in Preview, but I haven't read it because I get sick just thinking about it.

There are so many crises happening all at once, it's hard to figure out which is the wolf nearest the sled. I guess it's ensuring Donald Trump is defeated in November. But there are so many fires to fight besides that one.

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Originally posted at Nice Marmot 06:35 Tuesday, 9 July 2024

We hiked Buttermilk Falls this morning. Got there before 9:00 am, which meant we encountered fewer people on the trail.

It's only about three quarters of a mile each way, but about 463 feet of elevation gain. This was much easier than Treman, but still challenging. I'm getting better with the trekking poles, and I'm certain it would have been far harder without them.

After the hike we had a picnic lunch at the lower falls in the shade, enjoying the breeze. At home it was 93°F with a heat index over 100°F. I thought about that as I lay on the bench of the picnic table, staring up at the branches over my head.

I love New York.

Originally posted at Nice Marmot 13:01 Monday, 8 July 2024

A glimmer of hope.

Here's hoping we can come together and do the same.

Merci, mes amis.

Merci.

Originally posted at Nice Marmot 18:35 Sunday, 7 July 2024

We have a woodchuck for a neighbor. He showed up yesterday afternoon. I watched him (her?) with binoculars for a few minutes, but when I went to get a camera it ran back into the woods.

Watched some YouTube videos about trekking poles and found out all the things I was doing wrong. It was interesting, and I may incorporate them into my morning walks at home. I do need to make an effort to get down to the bridge on CR 210 to get some elevation change in my walks. We don't even have stairs in our house! Maybe the treadmill at the gym will do as well.

We're going to attempt Buttermilk Falls next week. I say "attempt," but I should say "do," because once you start, you have to either finish or turn back right away. Buttermilk was the park where we had Mitzi's son-in-law go get the car, because we weren't going to attempt to hike back up.

We'll do the same thing we did for Treman, hike up the gorge trail first, while we're "fresh," and down the rim trail. Get the hard part done first. We'll bring some snacks along too.

Sixty-seven and obese isn't exactly a recipe for success, but if we could do Treman, we can probably do Buttermilk.

Mom's in the hospital in up in Albany or Troy. Not sure where Ellis Hospital is. My sister the nurse works there, so that's good. Her new Apple Watch detected two episodes of her heart rate being only 30 bpm. My youngest sister took her to urgent care and they did some tests and decided she should be observed overnight and referred to a cardiologist. Apparently there's a slightly elevated tropin level, and some indication of bigeminy, a kind of arrhythmia.

We're heading to the Farmers' Market in Ithaca in a little while, and a little boat excursion on the lake. Weather seems to be improved, as the sun is shining this morning for the first time in a couple of days.

Well, that's probably more than enough blogging for one day. Hope everyone is enjoying their weekend and not dwelling on the unfolding terror around us.

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Originally posted at Nice Marmot 07:52 Saturday, 6 July 2024

Japanese beetles are an invasive species that I often see when we're here in New York. They are photogenic, with their color and metallic sheen; but they're pests. This was on the Cornell campus. I brought along the little Panasonic Lumix LX7.

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Originally posted at Nice Marmot 07:04 Saturday, 6 July 2024

The other morning, Mitzi and I went and wandered through the Henry A. Smith Woods. The kids and the younger woman were just coming out of the woods as we arrived. The older woman and the dog were walking along the road, and I gather the kids wanted to pet the dog. Perhaps the two women know each other, I don't know.

I seldom take pictures of people intentionally. I had the Stylus 1s with me, so this is at a comfortable distance with the 300mm effective focal length. I just found it charming and colorful, and it's one of the nice things about visiting here.

The woods were very nice as well.

Originally posted at Nice Marmot 06:53 Saturday, 6 July 2024

We took a walk on the campus of Cornell University yesterday, and this photo caught my eye. In Florida, Gov DeSantis and his white supremacist lackeys have banned such efforts at diversity, equity and inclusion. They don't want anything to interfere with their efforts to uphold and maintain white christian supremacy in Florida. The people reflected in this sign are "others" in Florida. "Special interests," because we're all supposedly "already equal."

Florida used to be two states, one for the privileged and the other, simply ignored. Now the other is attacked, demonized, and targeted. This is the result of the steady rightward drift of the Republican Party of Florida. A dynamic that was set in motion by gerrymandering, where the politically ambitious must run as a Republican to attain elected office; and in a state of closed primaries, the election is decided in the primary where the most motivated voters are the most extreme ones.

In a primary, the way to win is to be more "Republican" or "conservative" than your opponent. This drives the entire party further and further to the right. It becomes more and more extreme. Issues are reduced to culture war matters. Genuine problems and challenges are ignored, or placed in a culture war context, which is why Florida's statutes now omit any reference to the words "climate change."

All people possess the potential for cruelty, violence and hatred. It has generally been the role of good leadership to move people away from those tendencies. In Florida, Republicans lead citizens toward them. Lead them astray.

Anyway, the sign leapt out at me because it was refreshing. A center that offers resources for who aren't members of the white, christian majority, or plurality. I'm not certain of the demographic makeup of Cornell. I don't know how well the university performs this function. I just know it wouldn't even be permitted in Florida.

Originally posted at Nice Marmot 06:27 Saturday, 6 July 2024

I wrote the title to the previous piece after watching Heather Cox Richardson, who, as I wrote before, is my new North Star. And then I forgot to write about it. A "Biden moment," perhaps.

She said that people had been writing to her, asking what they can do. She tells them to, "Do what you do best." She's doing media hits.

I don't know what I do best. Anybody driving ships in this campaign? It's difficult for me to even know what my "best" is. Should I send all my available money to campaigns and PACs? The stakes are that high. I'm not there yet, but I'm struggling with it.

Some say that one of the ways to help with the climate crisis is to talk about it. I certainly do that enough here.

I don't know.

But I do know it's a question we all need to be asking ourselves. How can I help? What is "my best." And how do I do it?

Originally posted at Nice Marmot 09:34 Friday, 5 July 2024

I don't watch live cable news, but I've been browsing many of the YouTube channels. I watched Biden's address at his 4th of July barbecue. I think I understand what's going on when he speaks. It's somewhat like when I try to write in handwriting. My brain gets ahead of my hand and I start writing a word that's five words ahead of where the last word ended.

Now, he did forget Belleau Wood. Maybe I would too. He knows he's in the spotlight, so there's the pressure not to fuck up, which doesn't help in his circumstance. He reaches for a word, can't find it and realizes he has to move on and not be seen struggling to find it. It's hard.

I also watched the Hawaiian governor, whose name I can't recall, talk about meeting with Biden and I liked what he had to say. But I also watched a CNN panel on growing interest or movement toward Harris. That Biden is almost certainly "fine," right now, but he's not going to get "better." That we're going to experience more slips, more awkward moments.

This is unprecedented in our history. If we go by precedent, incumbents who don't run again, their replacements lose. Humphrey in '68. Not a large data set.

There's the campaign infrastructure. If the party changes candidates, all that has to get rebooted. Harris is the logical choice because she's largely been vetted before, but it'll all be rehashed again. She will at least have had the experience of enduring it once before, and it's less likely to throw her off her game. She knows how to respond already, it's in muscle memory. There's less media frenzy.

Likewise, I think the campaign infrastructure should be able to pivot to Harris relatively smoothly, though I'm certain she'd bring in her own senior staff and advisors, and how they get along with the remaining Biden people is a question. I think the stakes we're facing would make most of them fall in line pretty quickly.

I don't see Joe presenting well. I think he's fine cognitively, but the duties of the office are demanding enough, add to that the pressure of a campaign and the fact of his age and I just don't think he will be able to assuage people's fears that he's too old.

A Harris candidacy does flip the script on the age issue. We're still saddled with the border and the perception of the economy, but now Trump is the "too old" candidate.

I don't know if Harris can pull together the same coalition that Biden drew. It may depend on her choice of running mate. It's a question. I think she'd mobilize women perhaps more, or with greater enthusiasm than Biden, but I think most of them would be voting for Biden anyway, so it's marginal. But these races seem to be decided on narrow margins. Though we can't forget the absurdity of the Electoral College.

I don't think Joe should resign and give Harris an incumbency. If he steps aside as a candidate, I think he should continue to run the country and address the nation as the president about the stakes of this election. I think, without the pressure of campaign scrutiny, he could be an effective communicator regarding the danger represented by Trump.

We are in uncharted waters. I still believe that many people calling for Biden to step aside are doing so for self-serving reasons. I think if he does decide to withdraw his candidacy, that Harris is the only logical candidate to replace him. I'll support whoever the nominee is, but the sooner we get this resolved, the better.

Whatever chance we have to navigate the turbulent waters facing this civilization and our children and grandchildren, it is with leadership that at least tries to embrace humane values, that exhibits empathy, that is inclusive and not divisive.

This will be one of the most consequential elections in the history of the United States, certainly since Lincoln; maybe Roosevelt given that Lincoln saved the union while Roosevelt perhaps saved the world.

Who knew we'd live to see such times?

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Originally posted at Nice Marmot 08:58 Friday, 5 July 2024

And I'm not talking about an officer in the PRC navy.

Anyway, took that the day before yesterday. We spent most of yesterday hanging around the house. We visited a local apiary with a unique retail store in the middle of a field. Mitzi browsed the merchandise while I chatted with one of the owners about beekeeping, something my Uncle John did and I helped on occasion.

This is not a pleasant vacation. When we often read of feelings of "existential dread," it's almost a cliché. It feels all too real now, underscored by an overwhelming feeling of powerlessness.

It's like we can all see what's coming, it's horrible, and there's nothing we can do to stop it. Because, well, life goes on. That is, until it doesn't anymore.

There are genuinely horrible people who are looking forward to taking power in January, and who are telling us all the things they're going to do, which are frightening. What is absolutely terrifying, though, are all the things they're going to do that they're saying nothing about now.

What I find perversely encouraging is that the larger planetary crisis will swallow the political one. In some ways, it'll be a pleasure watching these selfish, mean and bitter people grapple with something they don't understand as it robs them of all the wealth and power they will briefly control.

The suffering inflicted by nature will be on a far greater scale, if nearly as inequitable.

We can be certain that there will be large-scale geo-engineering efforts undertaken, confidently sold to us by tech bros, which will fail spectacularly and yet offer some perverse satisfaction in watching them do so, assuming I live that long.

Anyway, enjoy your summer. Probably the last one you'll be able to.

Originally posted at Nice Marmot 07:28 Friday, 5 July 2024

I can think of no better day to decide. I just donated $1000 to Joe Biden. Can I afford it?

Can I afford not to?

Do what you can. Do your best.

The rest isn't up to you.

Originally posted at Nice Marmot 09:34 Thursday, 4 July 2024

The stakes are incalculably high.

Originally posted at Nice Marmot 09:09 Thursday, 4 July 2024

I had never heard of James Henry Hammond until I read Erik Larson's The Demon of Unrest. Then he turned up in Union: The Struggle to Forge the Story of United States Nationhood, by Colin Woodard.

Most recently, he was mentioned by Heather Cox Richardson in her June 30 Letters From an American blog post.

Hammond is an especially despicable figure in the dark history of the Confederacy. Apart from being an enslaver, he sexually abused his nieces. We know this because he wrote about it extensively in his diaries.

It's just interesting to me that such a figure would come to my attention with such frequency in a short period of time. Perhaps not so interesting considering that both Unrest and Union deal with the Civil War.

But Hammond's views represent a strain of American thought that has existed since the founding, and which continues today. Hammond was a member of the planter class, the wealthy elite of the South. Like many successful men, he married into it.

Hammond and others openly rejected Jefferson's claim that "all men are created equal." That view lives today.

Equality and democracy threaten the status and the privilege of the elite. FDR's New Deal created a new role for the federal government, to guard the equality and dignity of all Americans, against the predations of the elite, the monied class. Ever since it was created, the wealthy and the elite have been trying to roll it back and tear it down.

Gerrymandering is a cancer on democracy, where politicians choose their voters instead of the reverse. Gerrymandered states turn into political monocultures, where the policy views drift further to the extremes because elections are decided in primaries where only the most motivated voters turn out and reward the candidate who embraces the "purest" views of the radical fringe that turns out in proportionally greater numbers in primaries.

Demagogues thrive at both extremes of our political parties. The kinds of people contemplated by Thomas Paine when he wrote:

“A government of our own is our natural right: And when a man seriously reflects on the precariousness of human affairs, he will become convinced, that it is infinitely wiser and safer, to form a constitution of our own in a cool deliberate manner, while we have it in our power, than to trust such an interesting event to time and chance. If we omit it now, some [dictator] may hereafter arise, who laying hold of popular disquietudes, may collect together the desperate and the discontented, and by assuming to themselves the powers of government, may sweep away the liberties of the continent like a deluge.”

Democracy is messy. It can be slow to arrive at consensus. It involves compromise and concession. It confounds the impatience and ideological certainty of the extremes. At that makes it a liability they would happily do away with if they could.

If our democracy is to survive, and that is very much an open question as I write this, we must end the plague of gerrymandering. Monocultures make environments vulnerable to disease and parasites, in ecology and politics.

I just bought Heather Cox Richardson's Democracy Awakening. I'll read it on Kindle while I'm on vacation. I hope it will offer some comfort. Seems appropriate on Independence Day.

Last night I tried to stream Netflix's new Eddie Murphy Beverly Hills Cop movie. For whatever reason, which I don't know or understand, I was unable to send it to the tiny TV here via AirPlay.

So I chose a movie from my own library. I was looking for something light, but selected Darkest Hour, without giving it much thought. Perhaps I knew subconsciously it was what I needed to see. More so even than a comedy.

Originally posted at Nice Marmot 07:04 Thursday, 4 July 2024

Heather Cox Richardson:

But just as in the 1850s, we are now, once again, facing a rebellion against our founding principle, as a few people seek to reshape America into a nation in which certain people are better than others.

Originally posted at Nice Marmot 06:57 Thursday, 4 July 2024

Skip the MSNBC part if you wish and go to the two veteran officers, now lawyers, as they discuss the grotesque obscenity perpetrated by the Supreme Court. We are in for a world of trouble.

Originally posted at Nice Marmot 06:36 Thursday, 4 July 2024

I wasn't planning on giving money to political campaigns this year. But I've been slowly leaning toward changing that position. I'd hoped to begin putting aside money for my kids.

But I took an oath to support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic.

The conservative majority of the Supreme Court is corrupt and has violated its oath. It has displayed gross contempt for the honorable service and sacrifice of America's veterans. It has elevated the office of president, without constitutional basis, to an imperial one, unaccountable before the law.

It's up to us, through what remains of our democratic process, to rescue our republic.

And until such time as the shooting starts, ordnance means money.

I just donated $500 to VoteVets.org. I will donate more as the means and opportunity presents itself.

I'm asking you to consider doing likewise.

Originally posted at Nice Marmot 13:47 Wednesday, 3 July 2024

I don't read many pieces in the news that seem to begin with criticizing Biden and demanding he drop out of the race. I find all that rhetoric self-serving. People posing as sage political savants. It's too late for all that and the Democratic Party will destroy itself trying to identify a new ticket.

There are some things I read that I find, if not reassuring, at least make me feel less alone.

David From in The Atlantic seems like a voice of reason. Stuart Stevens, whose book, It Was All a Lie, I read and kind of enjoyed, channels some of my frustration with the Democratic Party.

And I find Heather Cox Richardson has become my North Star.

I hope that this grotesque obscenity redounds on both the Supreme Court and Donald J. Trump. I hope that veterans' organizations around the country recognize the open and brazen contempt the court has shown to veterans and service members by making their oath meaningless. I hope that announcing this gross obscenity during the Fourth of July holiday renders its faithlessness and contempt in bold relief to every person who has raised their right hand and taken an oath to support and defend the Constitution that Clarence Thomas and Samual Alito have chosen to wipe their asses with.

Originally posted at Nice Marmot 07:25 Wednesday, 3 July 2024

The emotion I'm struggling with the most is the title of this post. Mitzi and I were talking this morning and she speculated that this Supreme Court and its "decisions" will spark more "self-sorting" in America, with red states getting redder and blue states, well, less red.

The problem with self-sorting is one that I criticized Michael Bender, a professor at the University of North Florida who runs a political poll, for when he made a generalization that people tend to move to states that more reflect their values.

Florida is two states, one for the privileged and the other is ignored. Professor Binder was speaking of the former and committing the sin of the privileged regarding the latter. Poverty in Florida is a life sentence. Poor people can't afford to move. The kind of people moving to red states aren't exactly known for their generosity. Florida is defined by its policy of malignant indifference to the suffering of others.

Although that indifference has turned to open hostility toward those living on the margins of society.

Mitzi and I have spoken before of buying property in New York. More accurately, Mitzi buying property in New York. Although my navy pension and Social Security make me firmly among the privileged, I don't have the means to own property in two states.

I've been trying to save a little money this year. I hadn't planned on making any sizable donations to political campaigns. I thought I might try to amass a small sum to pass on to my children when I'm gone, though I think the opportunity for that has likely passed. I think now I'll look around and see where my money might best serve what remains of our democracy.

We have a narrow window to save the republic. If we can soundly defeat Trump and repudiate Trumpism and neo-fascism in November, install unambiguous if not commanding Democratic majorities in both houses of congress, we can reform the Supreme Court, and reduce the corrupting influence of The Federalist Society.

But it's a narrow window, and I'm not optimistic. I think America is on the verge of becoming a fascist autocracy like Hungary. I have to recall that I must "do my best, and the rest isn't up to me." And perhaps among my best actions is sending resources to those people still fighting for democracy in our nation.

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Originally posted at Nice Marmot 07:03 Wednesday, 3 July 2024

I recalled that Treman was challenging, but we hadn't done the whole thing in years. I told Mitzi that when we got back to the car I was going to write a note about our experience so we wouldn't forget the next time, if there ever is one.

When we discussed making the hike, I suggested that we do the gorge trail first, as the rim trail was likely to be "easier." Three years ago, at a different gorge, Mitzi's daughter and son-in-law were with us. After hiking down the gorge we had the two young people hike back up the rim trail to collect the car and come down and get us. We had looked at the rim trail and it began with a long series of steps and said, "Nope!"

This was my first hike with trekking poles. I wore the Cotton Carrier G3 on my chest with the E-M1X on it. It's a large body for micro four-thirds, and it does obscure your view at your feet. If I hadn't had the trekking poles I doubt I could have completed the hike, and I'm certain I'd have fallen on more than one occasion.

The hike was glorious going down into the gorge. New York has had a decent amount of rainfall, I haven't checked, perhaps more than "normal" due to our new climate, so all the falls were running with impressive torrents for early summer. The temperature was low to moderate, I think the most I saw on the hike was 78°F and the humidity was relatively low, so sweating actually worked to cool our bodies. I could feel the salt on my face at the end of the hike though.

I took a bunch if pics, too many probably. I'll post some on Flickr, though perhaps not this morning. "Seen one waterfall, seen 'em all."

We rested awhile at the upper falls and then started back down the rim trail. I'd forgotten that it begins with a steep descent on a seemingly endless set of stairs.

I found that in descending, I had to extend the poles a bit. Figuring out what length to set them at was a bit of trial and error. Ascending or walking on more or less level terrain, 49 inches was about right. I could essentially keep my hands low at my waist and just use my wrists to swing the poles forward. Going up, I could put a pole higher on a step or steep part of the trail with my arm remaining low enough to actually give me some assistance.

The trails are studded with roots and rocks and I almost turned an ankle a couple of times. I worried about Mitzi, but she's been using poles far longer than I have.

The image above shows the elevation profile for the gorge trail, hiking up to the upper falls. The rim trail isn't identical, but it is easier. Before we set out on the rim trail, I asked ChatGPT if it was easier than the gorge trail. Here's what it offered:

In Robert H. Treman State Park, the Gorge Trail is generally considered more challenging than the Rim Trail. The Gorge Trail runs closer to the creek and features a series of steps, bridges, and steep inclines, providing closer views of waterfalls and rock formations. The Rim Trail, while still moderately challenging, tends to have fewer steep sections and more gradual inclines, making it a bit easier for hikers compared to the Gorge Trail.

I used the Activity app to record both hikes. The gorge trail took one hour and forty-nine minutes, and expended 635 "active calories." Average heart rate was 136 bpm. The rim trail took one hour and 27 minutes and expended 545 calories, with an average heart rate of 138 bpm. The difference in time is confounded by the amount of time I spent taking pictures on the gorge trail. The increase in average heart rate may be due to fatigue.

While the grotesque obscenity was much on my mind yesterday, prompted often by seeing people in the water and thinking that rules are for chumps in America, I did enjoy the beauty of my surroundings and the pleasant sounds of birdsong and rushing water.

I think the effort I expended hiking the trail would have otherwise been spent in anger and anxiety, and the hike was a far better experience.

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Originally posted at Nice Marmot 06:33 Wednesday, 3 July 2024