Archive for the ‘Brexit’ Category
June 12, 2017
It is delightfully quiet as I sit on the deck, the fierce heat of the day receding and all the noise of the city left behind. About four o’clock, I returned to Columbia County from four days in the city, a delightful time, packed with adventures and sights and people. And I was glad to return to the quiet of the cottage and knit it all together.
The occasion of my trip was that it was my brother and sister-in-law’s wedding anniversary. They were married in New York four years ago and return every year to celebrate. Last year, I was absent, selling books in Edgartown, on Martha’s Vineyard.
This year, I was present. On Wednesday, they went for a private celebration of their anniversary while I had dinner with my wonderful godson, Paul Geffre. We had a wonderful dinner and then went to the Parker Meridien for after dinner drinks with Joe and Deb, who had not met him.
Joe, Deb and I went, over the days of the visit, to the Intrepid, Ellis Island, the site of the deadly Triangle fire, to “Spamilton,” which Deb and I enjoyed more than Joe as we got the Broadway references.
As I type, the Tonys are being broadcast and I am not watching. It seems more important to gather myself together after these hectic days, wonderful, full of visiting and fun and feasting and I’m sure my waist has expanded and I must handle that.
Today, after Joe and Deb had left for the airport, I brunched with old friends from California, one of whom has residences in both places and Meryl and Ray, who were in for a visit and work for Meryl.
Before I met them, I had a quick coffee with my bestest friend, Nick Stuart [Lionel, you are more than friend; we are family of choice], and we spoke of things and we talked about how I have been working on living in an “attitude of gratitude,” appreciating the good things in life and not yearning after what I don’t have and celebrating what I have, which is quite, quite wonderful.
Deb and Joe gave me a wonderful book about hygge and I laughed at getting it because I have been writing about hygge ever since I heard about it and, gosh, don’t we need it now.
At this moment, I am having a very hygge moment. Sitting on my deck, the creek is calm, birds are chirping. My neighbor’s dogs are romping some distance away. Far away there is a sound of a truck traversing the road a third of a mile away and I am not caught in the cacophony of New York, which is wonderful and now wearying for me.
When I was moving to DC, I lived for a time in an apartment in Georgetown, across from Dumbarton Oaks, and thought: wow, Mathew is getting to live in some of the great cities of the world. That has continued. And now, in the third act of this life, I am always glad to return to the quiet and the hygge of the cottage.
At dinners and brunches, we all discussed the political madness of our time, which is, at least to me, the most serious since Watergate, and all wonder how we got here and where will we go. The Democrats are in disarray; the Republicans fleeing or feeding the strangeness that is Trump [the kindest way I can describe this presidency].
The Clinton impeachment was a distraction, a hounding of a serial sexual player who didn’t want to admit in public what we all knew.
This is not a distraction. It is serious. This is Watergate level.
Theresa May in the UK, having lost [and it is almost impossible to believe she did] her gamble to get a greater majority to support her Brexit negotiations, was described tonight in some UK papers as “dead woman walking.”
Macron, in France, has seized the government in a way no one has since De Gaulle [I think] and we have a new day there. Angela Merkel looks to be re-elected in Germany. The political scene is exciting, if more than a bit scary.
Tags:Bill Clinton, Columbia County, Deb Tombers, Edgartown, Ellis Island, Hudson New York, Hudson River, Hygge, Intrepid, Joe Tombers, Macron, Martha's Vineyard, Meryl Marshall-Daniels, New York City, Paul Geffre, Spamilton, The Tonys, Theresa May, Triangle Fire, Trump
Posted in 2016 Election, Brexit, Claverack, Entertainment, Greene County New York, Hudson New York, Hygge, Martha's Vineyard, Mat Tombers, Mathew Tombers, Matthew Tombers, Media, Political Commentary, Politics, Social Commentary, Television, Trump, Uncategorized | Leave a Comment »
April 21, 2017
Apple blossoms dressed the trees in the orchards as I drove along 9H earlier today, the first, best sign of spring I’ve seen though, once having noticed them, I was aware that small buds of green were appearing on other trees. The ones outside my windows don’t seem to be sporting them and I’m sure they will come eventually, which is how this spring has seemed – eventually we will get there – just not yet.
It has been a quiet sort of day. Earlier I spent some time at OMI, an art center near me that I have known about but had not visited and that was my loss. The two-hundred-acre campus is dotted with sculptures, the main building with art exhibits. Today quite beautiful children were painting, running around in young life’s exuberance, bringing smiles to all the adults. I offered up a thought for good lives for them; the future does feel cloudy right now.
It’s not just that this is a gray day. Generally, I am an upbeat sort of person [or at least I think of myself as that] and today I’ve not been. The state of the world has been weighing on me, both close to home and far from here.
Close to home, I am burdened because a friend sent me suicidal texts and I was incredibly concerned and finally asked the police to do a “welfare check.” They did. He then texted me he wanted nothing more to do with me. Truthfully, I did the right thing and, at this moment, it hasn’t turned out well. For me and, I expect, not for him as he is in deep trouble and won’t admit it.
Candles to be lit; prayers to be said and to continue, as best we can.
Paris is continuing as best it can after a policeman was shot yesterday and two badly wounded by a terrorist who was killed as he was fleeing. IS claims responsibility and France is having elections on Sunday. The far-right candidate, Marie Le Pen, is threatening to remove France from the EU so that it can control its own borders.
She has a chance of winning.
The far right is making its might felt all over the place.
And that is so worrying to me.
For a brief, shining moment in my life it seemed we might actually be headed toward a global society and it has not happened. It was around the time the Berlin Wall went down, a moment I will forever remember. Driving down Olympic Boulevard in Los Angeles, headed west, my bestest friend, Tory Abel, called me on my car phone and said: do you know what’s going on? As I was listening to classical music, I didn’t. The wall was falling.
There are all kinds of suppositions about why that magic moment did not result in a better world.
Right now, I am reading a book about “the weekend” in British homes in the 1930’s and one of the revelatory bits was about a British Lord who became a Muslim because he saw Islam as the bulwark against women getting the vote and having shorter skirts and working.
He would probably have a lot in common with IS.
Change is hard. And changing centuries of tradition is hard and people will fight it. IS is fighting it.
When all of this works itself out, I won’t be here. It will take more than a lifetime.
And that is history in the making. It takes lifetimes to work itself out.
If you are not aware of it, Chechnya is conducting a campaign against gays. It is putting us in camps, not unlike the Nazis; there are tales of torture and death. Can this be happening in the 21st Century? Apparently so. The reports are horrific.
The President of Chechnya has declared he will eliminate the gay community by the beginning of Ramadan on May 26th.
Putin has declared there is no evidence this is happening and that is Putin’s view of the world: no horrible thing is happening. There is no sarin gas is Syria, there is no campaign against gays in Chechnya, there is no fill in the blank.
Tags:Chechnya, Chechnya campaign against gays, Far right, Los Angeles, Marie Le Pen, Nazis, OMI, Paris, Putin, Syria, technology, Tory Abel
Posted in 2016 Election, Brexit, Civil Rights, Claverack, Columbia County, Education, Elections, Entertainment, European Refugee Crisis, Gay, Gay Liberation, Greene County New York, Hudson New York, IS, Life, Literature, Mat Tombers, Mathew Tombers, Matthew Tombers, Media, Mideast, Nazis, Paris Attacks, Paris Killings, Political, Political Commentary, Politics, Putin, Russia, Social Commentary, Television, Trump, Uncategorized | Leave a Comment »
October 11, 2016
Well, it’s Monday evening and nearly twenty-four hours has passed since the debate. It was as close to X rated as any debate in the history of the Presidential Elections, what with Hillary bringing up Trump’s vile language in his 2005 tape and Trump bringing up Bill Clinton’s well-documented infidelities.
Oh my! Personally, I thought Trump looked terrible. And that sniffling…
The NY Times [and my conservative readers will not like this] said that there was only one adult on the stage and it wasn’t Donald Trump. I agree.
Trump had a little get together before the debate with four women who accuse Bill Clinton of sexual assault. Look, Bill was a philanderer. We all know that now thanks to Monica Lewinsky. We know Hillary was brutal in her defense of her husband.
AND Hillary is running for President. Not Bill. Bill Clinton was JFK without a compliant press.
It was down and dirty, Trump dominating the stage, sniffling all the time, while Hillary [IMHO] was doing her best to both go there and not go there. Trump’s tape was the elephant in the room.
It’s getting near the end of the day, thank God. There’s not much more of this I can stand.
However, there was one bright spot in the debate. His name was Ken Bone and he asked a question, wearing a bright red sweater and looking like the guy next door that we really like.
He asked about what the candidates would do to both protect legacy power and create environmentally safe sources going forward. He was respectful, he was clear, he was concise and because he looked like the neighbor you wanted to live next door to you, the Internet went wild. He was everywhere.
And that red sweater he was wearing? There are now all kind of Internet leads that will help you buy that sweater.
He was sweet and real in a moment that felt neither real nor sweet in any other way.
Bravo, Mr. Bone.
But in the meantime, Paul Ryan has said he will no longer defend Trump and will concentrate on keeping the down ticket seats safe. It is one of the rare things Paul Ryan has done with which I agree.
It is pitch black outside and the control to turn on the floodlights is broken, soon to be repaired.
This is the night I turned on the heat, the temperature will fall near to freezing this evening. Soon, I may light a fire in the Franklin Stove and watch some video.
The new season of Poldark has started on PBS and I am catching up.
In the meantime, medics are asking to be let into Aleppo as there is no longer an infrastructure to help the wounded. When last I wrote, two of the four working hospitals had been destroyed. Who knows if the other two are still functioning.
The pound has fallen against the dollar due to Brexit. It was $1.57 to a pound. Now it is $1.23 to a pound. Mayhap I shall plan a trip to Britain.
Nigel Lafarge who helped organize the successful campaign for Brexit, praised Donald Trump for acting like a silverback gorilla in the debate last night.
Please! Really? Nigel, you lied through it all and once you’d won, you stepped down to avoid the consequences of your actions.
It is Columbus Day. In many places it is becoming Indigenous Peoples Day. We are beginning to make mea culpa over the damage we had done to the people who lived here when we arrived.
We destroyed them, all in the name of progress. It makes me wonder what the world would be like if we had incorporated their beliefs into the way we developed our New World?
Tags:Aleppo, Bill Clinton, Brexit, Columbus Day, Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton, Indigenous Peoples Day, Ken Bone, Monica Lewinsky, Nigel LaFarge, Paul Ryan, Poldark, Pound, Presidential Elections, Trump Sex Video Tape
Posted in 2016 Election, Brexit, Civil Rights, Claverack, Columbia County, Elections, Entertainment, Hillary Clinton, Hollywood, Hudson New York, Mat Tombers, Mathew Tombers, Media, Mideast, Political, Political Commentary, Politics, Social Commentary, Syrian Refugee Crisis, Uncategorized | Leave a Comment »
July 18, 2016
The New Jersey countryside is slipping by, not very attractive here, just outside New York City, just before Newark, a maze of train tracks and freeway overpasses, industrial complexes and abandoned buildings. This is the second of the four trains I will be taking today and tomorrow on my way to Minneapolis — actually St. Paul because that’s where the depot is.
Every year I go to Minneapolis to visit family and friends. And this year I thought taking the train would make it more of an adventure and I routed myself through DC so that I might take the Capitol Limited, the train from DC to Chicago, which I have never taken beyond Martinsburg, WV.
Trains as a way of travel are good to give me time to think. And I and we have much to think about. Yesterday’s New York Times Weekend Briefing had a link to an article advising us on how to cope with such a bad news week. One suggestion was to curb your exposure to news and to spend time with family and friends. “Listening is curative.”
And that was posted before I went to Church, where I lit candles for people and causes I care about and who need caring for and as I was lighting candles, one for peace, my pocket vibrated and I saw that three police men were dead in Baton Rouge, killed, we now know, by an ex-Marine who targeted them. In my pew, I lowered my face and felt defeated.
In all the talk we have had, pro and con about police killing people, and now people killing police, we have not taken the time to accept that violence happens with appalling frequency and we need to take responsibility for it, each and every one of us.
The US is not in the top ten most violent countries nor are we one of the ten most peaceful countries. Australia and Canada are in that category though. We feel about as safe walking around in our neighborhoods as an average European does. That’s good… However, CriminalJusticeDegreeHub.com says we are “in a pandemic of homicides,” as other kinds of crime seem to be “stifled.”
And what has gotten us all worked up is this pandemic of homicides, particularly ones that involve the police. For the most part, we seem to respect our police. But murder marches on.
And I want to do something about it. I want to do something more than light candles. And I don’t know what that is.
Many of us do feel anguish and impotence because we don’t know how to move our country into being a more peaceful place than it is. And that is what we want for our country, to be a more peaceful place. Governor Edwards of Louisiana said, “Emotions are raw. There’s a lot of hurting people.”
And there are. I am hurting and I am nowhere near Baton Rouge or Dallas though will not be far from Falcon Heights when I arrive in Minnesota. This last week of violence has hit me hard and has hit everyone I know in some hard way. My friends seem hurt and bewildered, not angry, confused not infuriated.
Mix all of this with the attempted coup in Turkey which failed and has resulted in a harsh crackdown by Erdogan on anyone he suspects, pour in the wounds from Nice, France, sprinkle with Brexit and add a dash of any personal suffering we are enduring, stir with the healthy mix of dismay we are having over our incredible political season and there is no wonder we are confused, bleak and anguished, feeling just a little more fragile than is our wont or want.
Perhaps there is some revelation that will come to me while I traverse half the country, back to Minnesota, where I was born.
Tags:Amtrak, Baten Rouge, Brexit, Clinton, Erdogan, Falcon Heights, Mat Tombers, Mathew Tombers, Minneapolis, Obama, St. Paul, trains, Trump, Turkish Coup Attempt
Posted in 2016 Election, Brexit, Civil Rights, Elections, Gun Violence, Hillary Clinton, Life, Mat Tombers, Mathew Tombers, Media, Obama, Political, Political Commentary, Politics, Social Commentary, Trump, Uncategorized | 2 Comments »
July 13, 2016
The leaves are being jostled by a light wind that tempers the warmth of the afternoon here at the cottage. The creek is reflecting back the images of the trees overhanging its banks. Occasionally, a trout will slide through the water. The only noise is the distant sound of a small plane heading toward the little airport north of me.
I have been ensconced here for several hours now, earlier sipping tea and now a Diet Coke. It is the perfect day for sitting on my deck, overlooking the creek, reading and thinking. It reminds me of a childhood sweet summer day back in Minnesota, when I was young and the days seemed to last forever. It is a day that is demanding very little from me and I am embracing the lack of demand.
The gentle wind and soft warmth cry out to be savored, embraced, enjoyed and I am opening my arms to them.
As I have sat here this morning, David Cameron has left 10 Downing Street, gone to Buckingham Palace, met the Queen and formerly resigned. Theresa May, who is promising a “bold, new” future for Britain, is the newest Prime Minister to serve Her Majesty, the thirteenth in a line that began with Winston Churchill.
Obama spoke in Dallas yesterday, yet again, after the tragic murders of human beings. He was eloquent and spoke of hope in the darkness and yet I heard tiredness and pain in the clips I have heard. He has had to do this so many times in his two terms; the most heartbreaking was after Newtown.
As I think of dark times, the sky has darkened over me, causing me to wonder if my part of the world will begin to weep?
A social media storm has broken out over former President George W. Bush’s behavior during a rendition of the “Battle Hymn of the Republic” at the Dallas Memorial yesterday. Judge for yourself:
http://gawker.com/what-exactly-was-going-on-with-george-w-bush-at-the-me-1783551893
We all have different responses to grief…
I am getting older, as are all of us, and it seems to be weighing heavily on Japan’s Emperor. Akihito is 82 and reports are saying he feels his health is getting in the way of his duty and that he might abdicate soon in favor of the 56 year old Crown Prince Naruhito.
China is saber rattling about the South China Sea after the International Court in The Hague ruled that China had violated the rights of the Philippines there with its harassment of sailors and fishermen. China rejects the ruling. Several countries, including Viet Nam, have territorial claims to the energy rich South China Sea, all of which are rebuffed by the Chinese.
In other cheery international news, Russia and NATO are bumping heads again after NATO announced it is moving 4,000 troops into the Baltic to form a bulwark against the Russians. They form a security threat, says Russia, and both sides are getting more intractable, as the months go on since Russia reclaimed the Crimea.
Wouldn’t it be lovely if people said: we have a problem here. How can we solve it? Days like today bring out my childhood naïveté.
Trump is looking at candidates to be his Vice Presidential nominee and having them meet with his family. They include, Mike Pence, Governor of Indiana, Newt Gingrich, former Speaker of the House and Chris Christie, lame duck Governor of New Jersey.
Last night, three more men were shot, this time in Norfolk, Virginia. Two are improving, one remains critical. All were black.
A year ago, a white teenager named Zachary Hammond was killed by police bullets during a drug investigation. His parents are wondering why no one ever took up the cry about his death. I wonder too…
The Republican platform is devotedly anti-LGBTQ. A few efforts to change that have been beaten back. The GOP is going to be what the GOP has been the last few decades.
The day is swinging toward a close. I have run a few errands, brought in the garbage cans and am looking forward to continuing this place magical day into the evening.
Tags:Akihito, China, Claverack, Claverack Creek, Donald Trump, George W Bush Dance, Hillary Clinton, LGBTQ, Mat Tombers, Mathew Tombers, Mike Pence, Naruhito, Newt Gingrich, Obama, Putin, South China Sea, The Donald, Zachary Hammond
Posted in 2016 Election, Brexit, Columbia County, Elections, Entertainment, Gay, Gay Liberation, Hillary Clinton, Hudson New York, Mat Tombers, Mathew Tombers, Media, Obama, Political, Political Commentary, Politics, Putin, Russia, Social Commentary, Trump, Uncategorized | Leave a Comment »
July 1, 2016
It is a bucolic time of day on Martha’s Vineyard; the sun is beginning to set. A sailboat has gone by, heading to the north. Its sail is designed like a huge American flag while moving to the south is the Edgartown Water Taxi, ferrying people to their docks. The light is a marvelous gold and the water is steel blue. Jeffrey’s sailboat rides at anchor directly in front of me, looking stately. The scene is peaceful, other worldly, of another dimension than the rest of the world.
The rest of the world is not peaceful.
Britain is in spasms. Boris Johnson, former Mayor of London, a prime supporter of Brexit, poised and desiring to be the next Prime Minister, found himself outflanked by the man who was to have been his campaign manager, Michael Gove. Long saying he was not aspiring to higher office, he released a statement hours before Boris was to make his speech announcing that he was seeking to be Prime Minister saying that he could not support the former Mayor of London and that he was running for the position himself.
As Boris’ father said, “Et tu, Brute?” It was an act worthy of Shakespeare. Boris then announced he was not seeking to be PM.
A nasty race is ahead for the Tories with Boris gone and characters worthy of “House of Cards” rend against each other.
The Labour Party is also rent. Their leader, Jeremy Corbyn, has been given a “no confidence” vote by his party and it seems every politician in Britain is urging him to depart but he clings to his position with a kind of astounding ferocity surprising in so absolutely colorless a man.
Turkey says that the bombers in the terrible attack at Istanbul’s International Airport were all from the former USSR and were directed by IS out of Raqqa in Syria, their erstwhile capital. One of the victims was a father attempting to prevent his son from joining IS.
Tomorrow is July 1st. A hundred years ago marked the beginning of the Battle of the Somme in WWI. In the eighteen months it raged, there were a million casualties. Today Prince William, Prince Harry and Princess Kate were there to honor the dead, to let the world know they were not forgotten. In the first day of fighting, nearly 60,000 were wounded and a third of those died. During those awful eighteen months “the flower” of English youth died in one of the bloodiest, if not the bloodiest, battle in all of history.
The Taliban killed 33 Afghan police recruits today, a number that is dwarfed by that of the Battle of the Somme, but like the English, French, South Africans who died in France in 1916, those 33 had families, wives and children perhaps, lives that will never be found again.
Hopefully found again will be a commerative coin given by President Obama to the country’s oldest Park Ranger, 94 year old Betty Reid Soskin, who was attacked last night in her apartment by a young man who punched her and robbed her. She wants the world to understand she is not a victim but a survivor. 94!
I am winding down now as the harbor slips into a soft silver lavender light. Faraway, a dog barks, a soft breeze is blowing off the harbor. I am far away from all the madness. A week from tomorrow I leave to return to my cottage, itself a haven from the madness.
Tags:Betty Reid Soskin, Boris Johnson, Brexit, Claverack, IS, Isis, Jeremy Corbyn, Martha's Vineyard, Mat Tombers, Mathew Tombers, Michael Gove, Obama, Syria, Turkey bombings, USSR
Posted in 2016 Election, Afghanistan, Brexit, Claverack, Daesh, Elections, IS, Martha's Vineyard, Mat Tombers, Mathew Tombers, Mideast, Obama, Political Commentary, Politics, Social Commentary, Syria, Taliban, Uncategorized, World War I commentary | Leave a Comment »
June 29, 2016
The sun has set here on Martha’s Vineyard. Today has been a day that has reminded me I am no longer as young as once I was.
Yesterday someone did not show up for their shift at Edgartown Books and I basically worked from 8:15 in the morning to 10:30 in the evening. I was also joltingly awake as I had an iced latte with an extra shot at 6:00.
All day I have been sadly tired and after lunch came home and rested. Tomorrow is another day.
Another day will not be coming for at least 36 people, plus three suicide bombers, who died at Istanbul’s Ataturk Airport. IS seems to have claimed responsibility, not that there weren’t immediately suspected as soon as the bombers blew themselves up.
The Benghazi Panel has at last, I think, [though I thought they had wrapped up once before] and found no smoking guns against Hillary Clinton, though putting blame on the Administration.
Reading a report on the findings, I discovered why I thought it had ended once before. This was the eighth Congressional Panel on Benghazi, cumulatively it seems they all have cost more than our investigation of 9/11. This one cost was 7million dollars.
No one comes off well here. No one…
The Republicans have revealed the stage design upon which Trump will give his acceptance speech. And probably several more. It appears The Donald will be speaking all four nights of the Republican Convention. No one else has been racing to share the stage.
The Supreme Court let stand a lower court’s decision to not restrict abortion rights though abortion law is still not crystal clear. The Supreme Court also vacated the conviction of Bob McDonnell, former Governor of Virginia, who had been convicted of taking money for influence.
The chaos in the markets over Brexit has subsided as people’s nerves are calming as the world hasn’t ended but the rocky ride is far from over. The EU wants to separate quickly and cleanly while the Brits are going “we don’t want to leave quite yet.” Brexit regret is surging in the streets as has an uptick in violence against immigrants, the perpetrators feeling emboldened by the move.
Scotland and Northern Ireland are considering what they can do to stay in. Scotland is even throwing out the notion it can veto Brexit. The Northern Irish have accelerated their efforts to get Irish passports.
The EU, which has been making English the default second language is thinking of changing that though I suspect they will not actually make that move.
Nigel Lafarge, who orchestrated the Brexit is a member of the EU Parliament and was booed and had backs turned on him when he walked onto the EU Parliament’s floor today. “Why are you here?”
Mr. Lafarge is the politician who revealed that the claim by Brexit supporters that money that went to the EU from Britain would be turned over to Britain’s National Health Service, will not be happening. It was one of the major reasons older voters voted Brexit.
Through it all, Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II has remained mum.
I, too, will now turn mum as I head to bed. I will hold the bombing victims from the Istanbul Airport in my heart as well as everyone else that is hurting tonight, in Syria, Nigeria, Turkey, Iraq; there isn’t a country where there is no pain, including right here.
Tags:Benghazi, Donald Trump, EU, Hillary Clinton, Istanbul bombings, Martha's Vineyard, Mat Tombers, Mathew Tombers, Nigel LaFarge, Northern Ireland, Queen Elizabeth II, Scotland, The Donald
Posted in 2016 Election, Brexit, Elections, Hillary Clinton, Mat Tombers, Mathew Tombers, Media, Mideast, Nigeria, Political, Political Commentary, Social Commentary, Uncategorized | Leave a Comment »
June 25, 2016
It is a relentlessly beautiful day on Martha’s Vineyard.
Yesterday, I awoke and, in a habit I am attempting to break, reached for my phone and realized a new text message had come in while I was sleeping. It was from my friend Nick [though calling him “friend” underserves our relationship]. He is in the UK awaiting the birth of his first granddaughter. His text was the way I heard the news of Britain’s decision to exit the EU.
I literally shuddered.
The unthinkable has happened and, as predicted, world markets tumbled, crumbled, tanked, take any word with a downside meaning and apply it to the markets and that’s what happened on Friday though the US was down only about half of what other markets were.
The Republican presumptive nominee for President, The Donald, was in Scotland when the Brexit results were announced. He trumpeted it as a harbinger for his own campaign in the States. He was making these statements from his golf course in Aberdeen. Scotland did not vote to Brexit and is thinking of a new referendum on independence from England so it can get back in the EU.
As is Northern Ireland, which also voted to stay and is now thinking of slipping away from Britain and maybe reuniting with Ireland. Some in Northern Ireland are scrambling to see how to get Irish passports as Ireland is an EU country.
The British young are crying out to the older voters who went for Brexit: you stole our future.
David Cameron will step down by October as Prime Minister. Boris Johnson, who campaigned for Brexit, is being chatted up to be the new Prime Minister. Formerly Mayor of London, he is both flamboyant and eccentric, a bit like our Donald.
Jeremy Corbyn, who leads the opposition Labour Party, is facing a coup attempt based on what is perceived as his failure to do enough to stop Brexit.
Brexit is a crisis that will unfold in the weeks to come, will have ramifications of huge magnitude here in the states and which changes history.
The Donald gave a press conference while in Scotland. Read a transcript of it at this link:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2016/06/24/donald-trumps-brexit-press-conference-was-beyond-bizarre/
It lends credibility to Arianna Huffington’s belief that The Donald is acting like a sleep deprived human being. He’s proud that he only sleeps four hours a night and at his press conference, he did sound like a person who lacked the ability to connect the dots in his remarks.
Interestingly, many Evangelical leaders who did not support Trump are now climbing aboard Trump’s Evangelical Executive Advisory Board. Of course, they are not endorsing him but only “advising” him, hedging their bets against whichever way the wind blows.
Back here, at least 26 are dead in West Virginia’s devastating floods. One of them was four year old Edward McMillon, swept away even as his grandfather chased him, almost caught him and lost him. The town searched and found him in a creek that is normally only a few inches deep but had gone to six feet in the storms.
A house in flames floated down a swollen creek in what has been the worst flooding in the state in a hundred years.
Two are dead and several wounded in a shooting at a hip hop dance studio in Fort Worth. It was an apparently a party the owner hadn’t authorized; the studio is a non-profit to help kids stay out of trouble.
In Kern County, CA 46 square miles are burning, only 5% contained and two are dead, 100 homes lost and another 1500 threatened.
So goes our world, this early afternoon on the 25th of June.
Right now I am looking out across the carefully curated flowers at my friends’ home and am about to go down to the bookstore to see if they need help. Both the cafe and the bookstore were jamming today.
Brexit and The Donald and politics and evangelicals all seem very faraway and I am going to allow myself to feel faraway from them today and savor the moment. I said to Jeffrey, “I woke up happy.” And that’s what I am going to choose today.
Tags:Arianna Huffington, Boris Johnson, Brexit, David Cameron, Donald Trump, Evangelical Executive Advisory Board, Jeremy Corbyn, Kern County Fires, Mat Tombers, Mathew Tombers, The Donald, West Virginia Flooding
Posted in 2016 Election, Brexit, Elections, Martha's Vineyard, Mat Tombers, Mathew Tombers, Media, Political Commentary, Politics, Social Commentary, Trump, Uncategorized | 1 Comment »
Letter from the Vineyard 
Letter From Claverack 06 11 2017 Returning to hygge…
June 12, 2017It is delightfully quiet as I sit on the deck, the fierce heat of the day receding and all the noise of the city left behind. About four o’clock, I returned to Columbia County from four days in the city, a delightful time, packed with adventures and sights and people. And I was glad to return to the quiet of the cottage and knit it all together.
The occasion of my trip was that it was my brother and sister-in-law’s wedding anniversary. They were married in New York four years ago and return every year to celebrate. Last year, I was absent, selling books in Edgartown, on Martha’s Vineyard.
This year, I was present. On Wednesday, they went for a private celebration of their anniversary while I had dinner with my wonderful godson, Paul Geffre. We had a wonderful dinner and then went to the Parker Meridien for after dinner drinks with Joe and Deb, who had not met him.
Joe, Deb and I went, over the days of the visit, to the Intrepid, Ellis Island, the site of the deadly Triangle fire, to “Spamilton,” which Deb and I enjoyed more than Joe as we got the Broadway references.
As I type, the Tonys are being broadcast and I am not watching. It seems more important to gather myself together after these hectic days, wonderful, full of visiting and fun and feasting and I’m sure my waist has expanded and I must handle that.
Today, after Joe and Deb had left for the airport, I brunched with old friends from California, one of whom has residences in both places and Meryl and Ray, who were in for a visit and work for Meryl.
Before I met them, I had a quick coffee with my bestest friend, Nick Stuart [Lionel, you are more than friend; we are family of choice], and we spoke of things and we talked about how I have been working on living in an “attitude of gratitude,” appreciating the good things in life and not yearning after what I don’t have and celebrating what I have, which is quite, quite wonderful.
Deb and Joe gave me a wonderful book about hygge and I laughed at getting it because I have been writing about hygge ever since I heard about it and, gosh, don’t we need it now.
At this moment, I am having a very hygge moment. Sitting on my deck, the creek is calm, birds are chirping. My neighbor’s dogs are romping some distance away. Far away there is a sound of a truck traversing the road a third of a mile away and I am not caught in the cacophony of New York, which is wonderful and now wearying for me.
When I was moving to DC, I lived for a time in an apartment in Georgetown, across from Dumbarton Oaks, and thought: wow, Mathew is getting to live in some of the great cities of the world. That has continued. And now, in the third act of this life, I am always glad to return to the quiet and the hygge of the cottage.
At dinners and brunches, we all discussed the political madness of our time, which is, at least to me, the most serious since Watergate, and all wonder how we got here and where will we go. The Democrats are in disarray; the Republicans fleeing or feeding the strangeness that is Trump [the kindest way I can describe this presidency].
The Clinton impeachment was a distraction, a hounding of a serial sexual player who didn’t want to admit in public what we all knew.
This is not a distraction. It is serious. This is Watergate level.
Theresa May in the UK, having lost [and it is almost impossible to believe she did] her gamble to get a greater majority to support her Brexit negotiations, was described tonight in some UK papers as “dead woman walking.”
Macron, in France, has seized the government in a way no one has since De Gaulle [I think] and we have a new day there. Angela Merkel looks to be re-elected in Germany. The political scene is exciting, if more than a bit scary.
Tags:Bill Clinton, Columbia County, Deb Tombers, Edgartown, Ellis Island, Hudson New York, Hudson River, Hygge, Intrepid, Joe Tombers, Macron, Martha's Vineyard, Meryl Marshall-Daniels, New York City, Paul Geffre, Spamilton, The Tonys, Theresa May, Triangle Fire, Trump
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