Archive for the ‘Earthquakes’ Category
October 3, 2017
It’s a day of exquisite autumnal beauty and I am squirreled up on the deck, dressed warmly as there is a chill in the air but I want to be here, surrounded by the peace of this setting, this day, because out in the world, it is a grim and gruesome place.
It has not been possible for me to process the Las Vegas shootings. There are only two people I know who live there, my friends Chuck and Lois, and I found out they are only a couple of hours from me, visiting their daughter, safe.
But safe? We might need to find a new definition of safe.
Until about ten years ago, I made an annual or bi-annual pilgrimage to Las Vegas for conventions. While I don’t have a soft spot in my heart for the place, I have, because of business, visited regularly since 1980 and have a sense of familiarity. The Mandalay is a hotel I’ve been in more times than I can count and I’ve walked that part of the Strip. All before we began to need a new definition of safety, which is what the last sixteen years have been about, since hijackers used box cutters to attempt to bring down an empire.
It has seemed the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse are running rampant and there are some who are reading into these events a portending of the end times.
And it’s a little hard to blame them.
Just in the last weeks, we have had Harvey, Irma, Maria, two enormous earthquakes in Mexico, heart wrenching images of refugees from all over the world, from Myanmar to Syria, from Libya to the coasts of Italy and Greece.
And now, Las Vegas, an event I can’t process. What made Stephen Paddock decide to gun down hundreds, killing 59 at last count? What? What?
And the number of dead will likely mount as dozens of the injured are in critical condition.
The numbers could have been worse, if not for the many acts of individual bravery, like Jonathan Smith, who led at least thirty people to safety behind a row of cars before a bullet found his neck. He will live.
There are tears in my eyes and there have been tears in my eyes too many times recently, crying for people who are suffering and for brave people who scorned danger to save others.
Maybe it’s a good thing it’s hard for me to process Las Vegas because it will live with me just as Sandy Hook lives with me, like 9/11 will never not be part of my life while I live.
It’s no wonder we are searching for distractions, which is what the twenty plus thousand people at the Las Vegas concert were doing. Looking for fun, celebrating life, seeking joy and then were subjected to unbelievable violence.
Following is a great summation of what late night hosts said, men who are finding themselves in the uncomfortable place of feeling society is demanding they raise their voices. Here.
Paul Ryan announced today that because of Las Vegas a vote will be delayed in Congress about making it easier to get silencers for guns.
Trump was in Puerto Rico today handing out supplies and, according to some reporters, making sure “the optics” were good. Not particularly caring about optics, read what this DC chef is doing in Puerto Rico. Here.
Tonight, as I finish this letter, I find myself feeling very alone, not personally frightened but frightened, in a broader sense, in the sense I can’t make sense of Las Vegas or fill in the blank.
Come Sunday, I will light more than one candle for Las Vegas. And before I sleep tonight, I will say prayers for the victims and will pray for Spain as Catalan announces it will be declaring independence within days and I will pray for the refugees streaming out of Myanmar and for people who are undoubtedly being tossed about the Mediterranean tonight as the summer season winds down, before heavy seas prevail.
There is no end of things for which to pray.
Tags:Catalan Independence, Donald Trump, Four Horseman of the Apocalypse, Harvey, Hurricane Irma, Las Vegas Shootings, Maria, Myanmar, Refugees, Spain, Stephen Paddock
Posted in 2016 Election, Claverack, Columbia County, Earthquakes, Education, Elections, Entertainment, Gun Violence, Hollywood, Mat Tombers, Mathew Tombers, Matthew Tombers, Media, Mideast, Political, Political Commentary, Politics, Social Commentary, Uncategorized | Leave a Comment »
September 15, 2017
It’s early on Friday morning and I am cruising down to the city today to have lunch with James Green, my former CEO from Sabela Media. It’s sale to 24/7 is what resulted in my moving to New York and ultimately in my being on this train, on my way to see him.
When I woke this morning, the cottage was being pelted by heavy rain and by the time I reached the train station the sun had broken through and there is the promise of a lovely day in front of me.
I will probably not linger in the city as I will be back again next Monday and Wednesday and today have a lot of cleaning up to do.
Cleaning up is what my friends on Saba are doing, my sister and brother-in-law in Florida, people in Georgia and South Caroline and the Keys and Cuba; everywhere touched by the wrath of Irma, following hard on the heels of Harvey, thinking of that just after texting my friend in Houston who missed Harvey and has now returned.
Figuring out what to do about the pudgy, pugnacious, paranoid, peculiar, peevish, perturbed, peculiar, pesky, piggish, perverse, pompous, potbellied, preposterous little dictator Kim Jong-Un in North Korea is becoming ever more problematic. While I slept, he shot another missile across Japan, after the U.N. passed more sanctions against him.
Distressing, horrible and disturbing is that another bomb went off in the London subway, eighteen have been injured. Thankfully none of them seriously. Something went wrong and it apparently didn’t fully detonate. Thank God.
Our Tweeter in Chief, lectured the Brits and used the incident to appeal for a broader travel ban and tighter internet controls. I didn’t see any condolences; might have missed them. I hope they were sent.
They weren’t sent after the earthquake in Mexico that killed a hundred; that has resulted in increasing the stress in our already stressed relations with that country. It’s a pretty deep and treacherous arroyo.
Out is space, the Cassini spacecraft has burned up in the rings of Saturn after discovering six new moons and many other discoveries, including subsurface oceans on Enceladus. Mysteries to be solved, discovered by a mission that some scientists have worked on for nearly three decades. At the end, they hugged, applauded and cried.
Earlier today I posted this quote on Facebook:
“You develop an instant global consciousness, a people orientation, an intense dissatisfaction with the state of the world, and a compulsion to do something about it. From out there on the moon, international politics look so petty. You want to grab a politician by the scruff of the neck and drag him a quarter of a million miles out and say, ‘Look at that, you son of a bitch.”
― Edgar D. Mitchell about looking at the earth from the moon…
And that’s what I want to say to Kim Jong-Un and the rest of the politicians. Look at that you sons of bitches! Look at that!
Tags:Cassini, Claverack, Claverack Cottage, Edgar Mithchell, Hurricane Harvey, Hurricane Irma, James Green, Kim Jong - Un, London Tube bombing, Mexican Earthquake, Saba, Sabela Media
Posted in 9/11, Civil Rights, Claverack, Earthquakes, Entertainment, Hollywood, Hygge, Life, Mat Tombers, Mathew Tombers, Matthew Tombers, Media, Mideast, Political, Political Commentary, Politics, Social Commnentary, Television, Trump, Uncategorized | Leave a Comment »
September 6, 2017
Today, earlier, as I sat sipping morning coffee, two huge geese came crashing through a tree fallen across the creek, landing hard, splashing as they hit creek water. It was startling. Geese, once so abundant on my creek, have been rare these last few years. Mature birds these, I wondered if they were from one of the many families of geese I have seen growing up while I have resided at the cottage, come home to roost for a moment. Sailing majestically up and down for a time, they departed and I’ve not seen them again.
Irma has become a Category 5 Hurricane and will reach Saba tonight, the Caribbean island I visited earlier this year. Two friends from my Los Angeles days have retired there and will be facing her fury as I write this. For a while, I got lost on Facebook to see if they had posted anything new but they hadn’t. It’s now that time when you get on your knees and pray, which I will tonight and have not done since my very Catholic days and that was a long while ago. And I am worried for them because Irma is as fiercer than Harvey.
Hopefully, I will know tomorrow more than I know tonight. Tonight, they are battening down the hatches and waiting, hoping, maybe praying though I don’t think either of them are religious. There have been posts from people I met there. They will be in my prayers, too.
Tonight, across the country, “Dreamers” are praying because Jeff Sessions announced the end of Obama’s DACA order and Congress has six months to fix it or all those “dreamers” will begin to be deported.
Color me cynical. How cruel can this Administration be? Trump is playing to his base but not to the interests of the country. Color me angry and not surprised. So little surprises me anymore. And there are all kinds of folks who think this is just wonderful.
And that scares me and makes me hopeful because all the rage in America is boiling to surface and maybe we will finally deal with it. It would be good if we did because we are in a very delicate place.
Back in the day, long, long ago, I was in Canada to be in my roommate’s wedding to a Canadian woman and, as I was preparing to leave, a group of my Canadian friends did an “intervention.” They did not want me to leave. Viet Nam was in play. They wanted me to stay, become a Canadian.
I didn’t. Because I was an American. It was a very profound moment in my life, making the decision to return. Those were people I loved, who loved me and I might have been happy there – a completely different life but not unhappy.
But I am an American and so I returned, got lucky, didn’t go to Viet Nam, didn’t serve in the military and made my life here.
But here is not the here I know. This here seems very strange to me, like the clock has been turned back and I don’t get it. Something is afoot and we need to fix it, once and for all. Maybe electing Trump will be the catalyst to fixing the festering wound that has damaged our national soul.
Tags:DACA, Dreamers, Hurricane Irma, Jeff Sessions, Saba, Trump
Posted in 2016 Election, Columbia County, Earthquakes, Hollywood, Life, Literature, Mat Tombers, Mathew Tombers, Matthew Tombers, Media, Music, Political, Political Commentary, Social Commentary, Television, Trump, Uncategorized | 2 Comments »
November 8, 2016
How could this not be a strange night? Tomorrow we will be voting [if we haven’t already] for the next President of the United States.
This has been the wildest, most contentious, most upsetting campaign I have ever witnessed in my life. It has been appalling.
Reading Steven Saylor’s mysteries set in ancient Rome, the democratic process then was even more horrible than now and maybe not by that much.
In some ways I have worked to insulate myself from the craziness. Returning home from New York after a quick round trip, I came into the cottage, turned on the floods over the creek and reveled in my home and the beauty that surrounds it. It is my anchor in this time of troubles.
While it is unbelievable to me, there is a path to victory for Trump. On Sunday, I lit a candle at church, praying that path would not be found.
Soft jazz is playing as I write this, another comfort in all of this.
Because I am having cataract surgery on Wednesday, I may go to bed not knowing who will be President. If that happens I will be afraid to open myself the next morning to the news. In the past week or two I wrote to a Republican friend of mine that I was terrified Trump would become President.
I have not heard from her since…
Apparently, his team has found a way to control his access to Twitter and has “cut him off.” No more Tweets from The Donald.
Several newspapers have reported that Ivanka Trump is attempting to distance herself from the campaign. On my way to lunch at Sarabeth’s at Lord & Taylor, I passed the Ivanka Trump Collection. No one there.
What I find horrible is that Trump’s supporters feel that even if loses, they win. He has given legitimacy to their radical views.
We have always been a flawed republic and I am just praying that we get through this most flawed moment successfully.
In the meantime, the jazz plays and will continue to play no matter who wins. No one will take that away from me in my lifetime.
Comey is, I suspect, on the coals after announcing today that the emails on Anthony Weiner’s computer amounted to nothing and so there will be no FBI movement against Hillary. The Daily News trumpeted: NOW you tell us.
The Dow jumped 371 points once Comey announced there was no reason to pursue Hillary Clinton.
I speculated that Comey is cooked, having lost the respect of nearly everyone.
Today, Janet Reno, the first female Attorney General, passed away. Sadly, I had almost forgotten her, though she weathered all the storms of the Bill Clinton administration.
Oklahoma suffered an earthquake today, linked, perhaps, to fracking.
And, really, can I make a request of the universe? Let’s end daylight saving time, okay. I am sorry. It just doesn’t seem worth it. I am discontented this year, as I am every season when it happens. Is there really a reason for this?
In New Delhi, the air is terrible and schools are closed. It is worse than Beijing.
As the Iraqis advance on Mosul they are finding mass graves with beheaded men and I have no idea how they justify their behavior. But they do.
It is not late and I am tired.
I am tired of this election season which has worn me beyond all reason and it will be over tomorrow, after which will come the next rancorous season and I will be here.
Commenting.
Thank you for reading.
I am honored.
Tags:Bill Clinto, Comey, Daily News, Dow, FBI, Hillary Clinton, Ivanka Trump, Janet Reno, Lord & Taylor, Oklahoma earthquakes, President of the United States, Sarabeth's, Steven Saylor, The Donald, Twitter
Posted in 2016 Election, Civil Rights, Claverack, Columbia County, Earthquakes, Elections, Entertainment, Hillary Clinton, Hollywood, Hudson New York, Life, Literature, Mat Tombers, Mathew Tombers, Media, Mideast, Obama, Political, Political Commentary, Politics, Social Commentary, Television, Trump, Uncategorized | 2 Comments »
October 31, 2016
As I headed north on the train, I watched mist close over the Hudson River as I drifted off to a nap after an extraordinary brunch with my friends, Mary Clare and Jim Eros, at Café Du Soleil on the Upper West Side. We laughed and giggled and ate and had a good time.
They were off to watch a flotilla of pumpkins in Central Park while I headed down to the station to head north.
It is dark now and the flood lights illuminate the creek. The ticking of my old clock is about the only sound I can hear and I am contented after a good conference in New York. Tomorrow is my meeting with my eye surgeon before the cataract operation a week from this coming Wednesday; I am weary of my blurry vision and am grateful I live in an age when repairs can be done to things like this.
A century ago, I would have been doomed to live with it if I had been so lucky to live this long. My friend, the philosopher Howard Bloom, always points out that we have doubled our life expectancy in the last hundred, hundred fifty years. A great accomplishment.
Things that would have killed us quickly have been either vanquished or we have ways of coping better than ever with what would have been life ending diseases not so very long ago.
Things like that give me some hope.
This week there were articles about robot warriors who could learn to kill using artificial intelligence, making judgments that only humans could before. While that brings to mind images from “The Terminator,” robots are being also developed to help those who are helpless and to save human lives in other ways. The Japanese are in the forefront of this because of their aging population.
Mary Clare and Jim split their time between Shepherdstown, WV and New York City. They describe themselves as the new “young old.” Both are retired and both are full of energy and life and a passion to explore the world and are an inspiration to me.
The three of us have all, to one degree or another, been tuning out the din of this the last weeks of this election cycle. It was left to me to explain the newest twist in the Clinton email drama. Both of them had missed it. All of us are confused by it and are wondering why the FBI ignored the guidance of the Justice Department to not say anything so as not to appear to be influencing the election.
But it is what it is and is another twist in this most remarkable Presidential election.
Last night a truckload of manure was dumped in the parking lot of the Democratic headquarters in Ohio. I find myself somewhere between outrage and hysterical laughter at the silliness of what is going on. Manure? In 2016?
As I cruised through the news today, I found an interview with Jerry Brotton, an English author, who has just published a book about Elizabeth I’s alliances with the Islamic world. Shunned by Catholic Europe, Elizabeth I built alliances with the Shah of Persia, the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire and Morocco. Fascinating.
However, in this present time the US is telling the families of workers in the US Consulate in Istanbul to leave the country. This is combined with a warning to tourists to not travel there because of targeting by terror groups of Americans and other foreigners.
At the same time, the Turkish government has fired ten thousand civil servants and is crushing any media that disagrees with it.
I am saddened beyond words. Fifteen years ago I was in Turkey and fell in love with Istanbul and have wanted to return. Perhaps not or at least not now…
The old clock is ticking. I think of it as the heart of the house. I am content tonight and am living in the now. Mindfulness is what I think they call it.
Tags:Cafe du Soleil, Cataracts, Elizabeth I, Elizabeth I & Islam, Erdogan, Howard Bloom, Istanbul, Jim Eros, Manure in Ohio, Mary Clare Eros, Mat Tombers, Mathew Tombers, Robots, The Terminator, Turkey
Posted in 2016 Election, Claverack, Columbia County, Earthquakes, European Refugee Crisis, Hillary Clinton, Hollywood, Howard Bloom, Hudson New York, IS, Life, Literature, Mat Tombers, Mathew Tombers, Media, Mideast, Political, Political Commentary, Politics, Social Commentary, Syria, Television, Trump, Uncategorized | 2 Comments »
April 14, 2016
The Catskills are covered with a soft haze as I move south on the train; the Hudson River glistens like rippled, burnished steel. I am headed to the city for a few social get togethers, more about pleasure than business. Tomorrow morning, I am going to the exhibit “Pergamon” at the Metropolitan Museum. It chronicles the art of the Hellenistic period, from the death of Alexander to the rise of the Roman Empire.
I have a late lunch with my childhood friend, Mary Clare, and then drinks with Nick Stuart, of whom I have seen too little in the last few weeks and then back to Hudson on tomorrow’s 5:47.
The sun glitters but it is not yet warm and yet so pleasant that it feels decadent. Speaking with friends this morning, we reminded each other that we were incredibly lucky: we are not Syrian refugees or fleeing Boko Haram or fearing suicide bombers in Baghdad.
Nor am I in southern Japan where an earthquake measuring 6.5 struck, toppled houses and buckled roads.
All those things happened today, the 14th of April, 2016 CE.
It is a good day for Trump’s campaign manager, Corey Lewandowski, who will not be charged with battery over his altercation with a reporter recently.
It was a good and bad day for mothers whose daughters were kidnapped two years ago by Boko Haram. CNN aired a “proof of life” video that showed many of the lost girls alive and at the same time highlighted the failure of the Nigerian government to free them.
For 3 hours and 40 minutes Putin fielded questions on his annual call-in show. He described the Panama Papers as an “American provocation” and assured viewers that the economy will get better next year. He ordered an investigation into two women’s complaints they hadn’t been paid in months. It gave him a chance to seem grand and magnanimous while underscoring the illusion that Russia is a democracy.
As he chatted with his constituents, Putin’s jets flew low passes over a US warship, something that disturbed Secretary of State John Kerry.
We are putting combat troops into the Philippines as the South China Sea dispute ratchets up with the Chinese, who have now deployed combat jets in the area.
Isn’t there a better way?
Governor Charlie Baker of Massachusetts, a Republican and a supporter of gay sex marriage, was booed off the state at an event in Boston when he didn’t say he would support a bill that would give transgender people the right to use the bathroom of their gender identity rather than that of their gender at birth. It’s not what he expected.
Trump and Cruz are accusing each other of strong arming delegates to the Republican Convention, which has been pointing out to the general population on both sides of the political spectrum what an arcane world convention politics is, with super delegates, strange rules, and all sorts of other traditions that can manipulate the popular vote.
That is what Kasich and Cruz are hoping for the Republican convention, a brokered one that will allow one of them to grab the nomination.
Hillary is counting on those same things in the Democratic Party to ensure that she gets the nomination on her side.
Brings up images of “smoke filled rooms” from past generations.
The Hudson River in the afternoon sun is impossibly beautiful and I am privileged to enjoy the view, comfortable that I am probably not going to have to flee in the night, that I will get an evening meal and that I will be safe as I sleep.
It is these simple things we need to keep remembering or, at least, I need to keep remembering.
Tags:Baghdad, Bernie Sanders, Boko Haram, Charlie Baker, Claverack, CNN, Corey Lewandowski, Donald Trump, Earthquake in Japan, Hillary Clinton, Hudson, Iraq, IS, John Kerry, Mat Tombers, Mathew Tombers, Panama Papers, Proof of Life, Putin, South China Sea
Posted in 2016 Election, Airstrikes, Claverack, Columbia County, Earthquakes, Elections, Entertainment, Gay Liberation, Greene County New York, Hudson New York, Mat Tombers, Mathew Tombers, Media, Mideast, Political Commentary, Social Commentary, Television, Trump, Uncategorized | Leave a Comment »
January 8, 2016
Stock market rout Jamison Teale Christ Church Hudson Roy Moore Alabama Gay Controversy Tiffany Martin Hamilton Tommy Ragland Charlie Hebdo Anniversary Oklahoma earthquakes Netflix Bill Clinton Hillary Clinton John Kerry Syrian Peace Process Iran Saudi Arabia California storms Ted Cruz Burns, Oregon
Well, I was smart enough today to not look at the market as it was another BAD day as China’s market shudders riled every other market in the world. While they were plunging, I had a pleasant day.
Answered emails, ran errands and wrote out the first draft of my syllabus for my class that starts on the 20th. It was actually kind of fun, if headache inducing.
Now it is evening and I have turned on the lights outside, classic jazz is playing and I think I will light a fire as it is going to be chill again tonight.
My Christmas tree is still up and I am not taking it down until Sunday. Having been gone for two weeks, I feel I deserve a little more time with it. It is a white artificial tree and I think this is its last year. But it has been a beautiful, for me, tree.
Jamison Teale, the Senior Warden at Christ Church [where I attend services] and his longtime companion, James, were married on New Year’s Day by Hudson’s first woman mayor in her first official function. They are coming for dinner on Saturday with the church’s Musical Director, Tom Martin, father to Mayor Tiffany Martin Hamilton of Hudson.
One of my errands today was to find them a small wedding present.
While James and Jamison married easily here in New York, the Chief Justice of Alabama’s Supreme Court, Roy Moore, has ordered that state’s probate judges not issue marriage licenses to gay couples. Federal authorities immediately ordered them to do so. Some have thrown up their arms and aren’t giving marriage licenses to anyone.
Ah, Justice Moore, this has been decided. No back pedaling allowed I think.
One probate judge, Tommy Ragland, summed it up best, saying, “We have a Chief Justice who is confused.”
One of the other errands I did today was to look for a clock radio to replace my ancient one that no longer works. You know, they are rather hard to find. Not nonexistent but hard to find. I am going online to see what I can find there.
My toaster also broke and I looked at those too and thought they all looked shoddy. More investigation needed.
It is the anniversary of the Charlie Hebdo massacre. Let there be a moment of silence.
The French police killed a man brandishing a meat cleaver today, who was screaming “Allahu Akbar [God is Greatest].” He was wearing a fake suicide vest. That confuses me. Why bother?
Oklahoma had a swarm of 70 earthquakes yesterday. In 2013 they had a couple of hundred. In 2014 they had over 5,000. That is an exponential increase. 2015 statistics are currently being gathered. There is a suspect: fracking.
Earlier this week Netflix was available in 60 countries. Today it is in 190 countries. 130 countries “turned on” Netflix while its President and CEO was giving a speech at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.
I’ve attended a couple and they are always mind boggling. This year is not quite so much according to pundits but still generating lots of wow.
Politics continues. Bill Clinton is stumping for Hillary in Iowa. Lots of people I know would like him back but since he can’t….
Cruz is cruising in Iowa which frightens the bejesus out of me.
California is pummeled by storms and that worries me about friends there though I hope it is helping the drought.
In Burns, Oregon the unlawful occupation of a wildlife center continues. On social media people have been asking what would be happening if the occupiers were black or Muslim instead of gun totting white guys who are outraged over Federal land policy?
There are no easy answers to anything. Kerry says that the Saudi Arabia/Iran feud will not slow down the Syrian peace process but how can it not? I mean, how can it not?
I am taking solace in the cottage and in my hope that our better angels will prevail.
Tags:Alabama gay controversy, Bill Clinton, Charlie Hebdo, Christ Church, Claverack, Fracking, Hillary Clinton, Jamison Teale, Mat Tombers, Mathew Tombers, Netflix, Obama, Oklahoma earthquakes, Reed Hastings, Roy Moore, Stock market rout, Tiffany Martin Hamilton, Tom Martin, Tommy Ragland
Posted in 2016 Election, China stock market rout, Claverack, Columbia County, Earthquakes, Entertainment, Gay, Gay Liberation, Great Recession, Gun Violence, Hudson New York, Mat Tombers, Mathew Tombers, Media, Mideast, Obama, Paris Attacks, Paris Killings, Political Commentary, Politics, Social Commentary, Television, Uncategorized | 1 Comment »
November 23, 2015
Anniversary of Kennedy’s death. Lionel White. Pierre Font. Brussels. Paris. National Registry for Muslims. Donald Trump. Marco Rubio. Jeff Cole. George Stephanopoulos. Jeb Bush. Ebola. Liberia. Earthquake in Afghanistan.
It is the 22nd of November and for some reason I remembered that today is the 52nd anniversary of the death of John F. Kennedy. When I was reading the Times this morning with my first cup of coffee, it struck me.
I was in middle school and the principal came in and whispered to the teacher, who told us and we were all sent home from our Catholic School and began a mourning that I am not sure we are over.
It was a grayish day today and on the chill side but tonight there was the most spectacular sunset I have ever seen in my time here. The sky was a lush red that filled the horizon. I attempted a photo but it didn’t do the colors justice.
Also, the deer have returned. There was a family of them scattered on the road, on my property and across the street at Lionel and Pierre’s home. Standing proudly in Lionel’s yard was a young buck, watching as his family crossed the road in front of my very slowly moving car.
While I listen to jazz and wait for Lionel to arrive for Thanksgiving week festivities, the world itself goes on its crazy way.
Brussels seems to be in a virtual lockdown and a series of raids have been held during the course of the evening. The city is on the highest level of alert, the Metro will not run tomorrow and schools are closed. People are being advised to stay home and inside.
In Paris, they are searching for a third suspect and some are saying many “red flags” for the attacks were missed.
The world has changed, again, since the Paris attacks. Trump is talking a “national registry” for Muslims. He also claims that on 9/11 “thousands” of Muslims in New Jersey cheered as the Towers fell. He claims to have seen it himself, on television. Really? George Stephanopoulos reminded him that the police say it didn’t happen. But it did, George, but it did.
The Washington Post did an evaluation of the top Republican candidates and estimated that the nominee is likely going to be Marco Rubio, which my friend Jeff Cole suggested when we had lunch six weeks ago.
Jeb Bush comes in at number 5. Number two is Donald Trump. Is this really happening? I have stopped laughing because The Donald might just pull it off and that is a really scary thought.
The Paris attacks have changed the tone of our electoral campaign and will continue to influence it as we progress toward this, to me, most bizarre of electoral cycles.
Sadly, Ebola has re-emerged in Liberia and 153 people are being watched to see how it develops in them.
There has been a 5.9 magnitude earthquake in Northeast Afghanistan, bringing even more misery to that land of misery.
Thankfully, the jazz is soothing and the fire cheery. So I end the day, curled up in the comforts of the cottage, Tempting as it might be, I am not yet retreating into blocking out the news of the day.
When I was younger, globe trotting, I felt like a citizen of the world. I still feel that way.
Tags:Brussels, Donald Trump, Earthquake in Afghanistan, Ebola, George Stephanopoulos, Jeb Bush, Jeff Cole, Kennedy Assasination, Liberia, Lionel White, Marco Rubio, National Registry for Muslims, Paris, Pierre Font
Posted in 2016 Election, 9/11, Columbia County, Earthquakes, Elections, Hudson New York, Mat Tombers, Mathew Tombers, Political Commentary, Social Commentary, Trump, Uncategorized | Leave a Comment »
October 26, 2015
Amtrak. James Linkin. Relish. Bacon is cancer causing. Earthquake in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Taliban. Captagon. Saudi Royal arrested. Donald Trump. Matt Lauer. A small loan. Space junk. John Boehner. Budget Deal. Paul Ryan.
I’m heading back to the city, going south on the train. My friend, James Linkin, is sitting across from me, eating his lunch from Relish, the little café across from the Hudson Train Station, where I had breakfast. Today may be the last time I will have bacon; it is now categorized as cancerous as cigarettes, which I have long since quit. And so are hot dogs! Alas and alack…
The leaves are at their peak, fabulous in their colors. The train is temporarily stopped for unknown reasons, as happens now and again.
Last week, I had a week of doing some very stupid things. I left to go to the city and realized after I had shut the door, my keys were still on the table. I had the car fob so I went on my way. Getting off the train, I left one bag on it as it pulled out of Hudson when I was returning.
Gina, the conductor, realized it and called the Hudson Station, alerting them. She sent it back on the next south bound train and I picked it up after I finished my luncheon meeting in Hudson.
Nick brought me his keys so I could let myself in. It was that kind of week. Mistakes made better by helpful people.
Last night more than two hundred died in an earthquake that rocked Afghanistan and Pakistan. Measuring 7.5, it has destroyed hundreds of homes as winter sets in. In Afghanistan, rescue will be complicated by the escalating Taliban insurgency.
A so far unnamed Saudi Royal is being held in Beirut with four of his associates, charged with attempting to smuggle two tons of Captagon out of the country on a private jet. I have never heard of Captagon. It’s a stimulant. Two tons is a LOT of stimulation.
Back in Saudi Arabia, a bomb went of at a mosque, killing three, injuring more. No one has claimed responsibility. The Saudi Royal in Lebanon has an alibi.
Donald Trump told Matt Lauer that life has not been easy for him. His dad loaned him a small amount, a million dollars, when he was starting out and he had to repay it, with interest. I mean, he said, a million dollars isn’t so much when you consider what’s he built when challenged by Matt Lauer on a million being small.
It’s the perspective, you see.
WT1190F is the title given to a piece of space junk that is going to crash into the Indian Ocean in three weeks. Scientists are very excited because they don’t know what it is. It might even be a piece of the original Apollo missions to the moon. They just don’t know but they’re going to do their best to find out before it enters the atmosphere, where most of it will burn up and the rest will rust in the Indian Ocean.
Before departing Congress, John Boehner, still Speaker of the House, is attempting to close a budget deal with the White House. Parts of it, disturbingly, include cuts to Social Security and Medicare. It does include increases for military and domestic spending. Boehner is attempting to get fractious Republicans to go along so that waters will be smoother when Paul Ryan, as it is assumed, becomes Speaker.
I am in New York now and the day is still beautiful. Hope yours is too…
Tags:A small loan, Amtrak, Bacon causing cancer, Budget Deal, Captagon, Donald Trump, Earthquake in Afghanistan and Pakistan, James Linkin, John Boehner, Mat Tombers, Mathew Tombers, Matt Lauer, Paul Ryan, Taliban
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Letter from the Vineyard 
Letter From Claverack 10 03 2017 Not making sense of Las Vegas, or much else…
October 3, 2017It’s a day of exquisite autumnal beauty and I am squirreled up on the deck, dressed warmly as there is a chill in the air but I want to be here, surrounded by the peace of this setting, this day, because out in the world, it is a grim and gruesome place.
It has not been possible for me to process the Las Vegas shootings. There are only two people I know who live there, my friends Chuck and Lois, and I found out they are only a couple of hours from me, visiting their daughter, safe.
But safe? We might need to find a new definition of safe.
Until about ten years ago, I made an annual or bi-annual pilgrimage to Las Vegas for conventions. While I don’t have a soft spot in my heart for the place, I have, because of business, visited regularly since 1980 and have a sense of familiarity. The Mandalay is a hotel I’ve been in more times than I can count and I’ve walked that part of the Strip. All before we began to need a new definition of safety, which is what the last sixteen years have been about, since hijackers used box cutters to attempt to bring down an empire.
It has seemed the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse are running rampant and there are some who are reading into these events a portending of the end times.
And it’s a little hard to blame them.
Just in the last weeks, we have had Harvey, Irma, Maria, two enormous earthquakes in Mexico, heart wrenching images of refugees from all over the world, from Myanmar to Syria, from Libya to the coasts of Italy and Greece.
And now, Las Vegas, an event I can’t process. What made Stephen Paddock decide to gun down hundreds, killing 59 at last count? What? What?
And the number of dead will likely mount as dozens of the injured are in critical condition.
The numbers could have been worse, if not for the many acts of individual bravery, like Jonathan Smith, who led at least thirty people to safety behind a row of cars before a bullet found his neck. He will live.
There are tears in my eyes and there have been tears in my eyes too many times recently, crying for people who are suffering and for brave people who scorned danger to save others.
Maybe it’s a good thing it’s hard for me to process Las Vegas because it will live with me just as Sandy Hook lives with me, like 9/11 will never not be part of my life while I live.
It’s no wonder we are searching for distractions, which is what the twenty plus thousand people at the Las Vegas concert were doing. Looking for fun, celebrating life, seeking joy and then were subjected to unbelievable violence.
Following is a great summation of what late night hosts said, men who are finding themselves in the uncomfortable place of feeling society is demanding they raise their voices. Here.
Paul Ryan announced today that because of Las Vegas a vote will be delayed in Congress about making it easier to get silencers for guns.
Trump was in Puerto Rico today handing out supplies and, according to some reporters, making sure “the optics” were good. Not particularly caring about optics, read what this DC chef is doing in Puerto Rico. Here.
Tonight, as I finish this letter, I find myself feeling very alone, not personally frightened but frightened, in a broader sense, in the sense I can’t make sense of Las Vegas or fill in the blank.
Come Sunday, I will light more than one candle for Las Vegas. And before I sleep tonight, I will say prayers for the victims and will pray for Spain as Catalan announces it will be declaring independence within days and I will pray for the refugees streaming out of Myanmar and for people who are undoubtedly being tossed about the Mediterranean tonight as the summer season winds down, before heavy seas prevail.
There is no end of things for which to pray.
Tags:Catalan Independence, Donald Trump, Four Horseman of the Apocalypse, Harvey, Hurricane Irma, Las Vegas Shootings, Maria, Myanmar, Refugees, Spain, Stephen Paddock
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