Archive for the ‘Politics’ Category
June 14, 2016
Yesterday, as I suspect most people did, I woke to the horror of the Orlando massacre. Rubbing the sleep out of my eyes, I kept wondering if I was actually reading what I was reading.
Of course I was.
Not long ago I emailed a friend, now living in Florida, that I felt furious and, at the same time, numbed. I am angry and do not know a single thing I can do that will actually help affect any kind of real change. A New Yorker, both my Senators support more stringent laws regarding guns. It will do no good to write them. Obama sits on my side of the issue.
And any letter I write to a Republican, I fear, will lend no weight. I have tried. Somehow I end up on their mailing lists, thanking me for being a supporter. When Bush was President, I wrote a letter demanding he not invade Iraq. For years, I received Christmas cards and photos of W. and Laura, thanking me for my loyalty to them.
Same with my local Congressman…
They are not listening.
It is twilight here on Martha’s Vineyard. A few boats skiff across the harbor. From where I sit, I can see the Edgartown lighthouse. I am sipping a glass of wine, lost in the quiet and the beauty, furious and numb.
As I was not needed at Edgartown Books, I headed out in my car today, turning left at the end of the driveway and letting fate take me where it will. For awhile, as I drove, I listened to NPR programs doing an exegesis of yesterday’s tragedy, the worst mass shooting in the country.
As he holed up with terrified people, Omar Mateen, the shooter, called 911 to let them know he was doing this because he was pledging allegiance to IS, calling the Boston bombers from its Marathon his “brothers.”
As I listened, the portrait of Omar Mateen was beginning to reveal itself to those who were attempting to figure out what had happened. He was American born, apparently radicalized via the Internet, probably bi-polar, an abusive husband, worked for a security firm, had been interviewed at least twice by the FBI because of statements he made or actions performed.
He bought his guns legally. He bought his guns legally, after all that. He killed 49 people and died himself. 53 others are wounded.
He was offended by seeing two men kiss. But his parents didn’t think he was unhinged.
Trump tweeted in peacock pride about being right about Muslims except Omar Mateen was born in America of Afghan parents. He was a US citizen by birth, no act would keep him out. He didn’t come here perverted. He was born here and was perverted by God knows exactly what…
He attacked a gay nightclub, Pulse. It is Gay Pride Month. It is also Immigration Month. It was Latin night at Pulse. Kill two birds with one stone? Hate amplified?
As I drove the island today, I felt lonely, in the way I felt lonely when I was young and watched as Viet Nam unfolded before me and about which I felt powerless until I played hooky from school and joined a march against the war.
We have no marches these days. We don’t gather together to scream against the violence. Perhaps that is why I felt lonely today; I have comrades but we do not come together, we do not march together, we do not sing songs of protest together against the outrageousness of the time in which we live.
Sitting here, watching the pink tinged sky while a small boat motors across the harbor, I am still numb and I am still furious. What do I do with this?
And in the back of my head, all day has been the thought: where have all the flowers gone?
Tags:Boston Marathon Bombing, Donald Trump, Edgartown, Gay, Gay Pride, Hudson, Immigration Month, Iraq, IS, Martha's Vineyard, Mat Tombers, Mathew Tombers, Obama, Omar Mateen, Pulse, The Donald, Where have all the flowers gone?
Posted in 2016 Election, Afghanistan, Daesh, depression, Gay, Gay Liberation, IS, Martha's Vineyard, Mat Tombers, Mathew Tombers, Media, Mideast, Obama, Politics, Social Commentary, Television, Trump, Uncategorized | 2 Comments »
June 7, 2016
I am sitting in a bar where I stopped to wait to hear from brother and his wife, about their progress into Manhattan via Uber. It is slow going out there. I just arrived in Manhattan from Teterboro Airport in New Jersey, having flown in on a private jet from Martha’s Vineyard.
It is not a normal occurrence in my life but I do have a friend who belongs to the private jet club and he was coming into New York and offered me a ride with him so that I could be in New York tonight when my brother arrived as opposed to tomorrow morning.
At Teterboro, there were, it seemed, hundreds upon hundreds of private jets lined up waiting for their owners to go somewhere. It was an amazing sight.
We then looked at a plane my friend is thinking of adding to his fleet, a plane capable of making it from New York to Beijing, non-stop. It is another world in which I occasionally waddle but do not live.
Long ago, when I was young, I was in a production of Aristophanes’ “The Birds.” Two con men find their way to Cloudcukooland, where birds talk and rule. It is a political satire first performed in the Fifth Century BCE.
And I thought about it tonight when I was looking at headlines about the current political scene. In one of my letters recently I said that I was appalled that Trump is the presumptive nominee of the Republican Party. His position as such is causing me to come out of the closet as a liberal, which I am not exactly…
A reader of my “Letter From New York” wrote back with a five page email about why, in the end, he is voting for Trump. I haven’t answered yet. I can’t quite figure out what to say. His position is all based on the fact Trump is an “outsider” and it is time that an “outsider” was elected to shake up the system.
Well, I think it well might be time for an “outsider” to win the election but not this “outsider.” He’s a wacko, a bigot, a looney tunes billionaire who has hijacked the Republican Party and no one in the Republican Party is actually calling him to account for that.
The press is treating him like he is a serious person when in reality he is a serious charlatan. He is a billionaire and has declared bankruptcy more times than Carter has little liver pills, as my best friend from high school, Tom Fudali, used to say.
I am so outraged right now that this poseur, who is stirring up the worst elements of American culture, is riding them to a nomination for President. I am aghast.
Not that I am not aghast at the Democrats, too. Who, riven with discord, are tearing at each other every step of the way to the nomination. In the end, it will probably be Hillary Clinton, a flawed but qualified candidate, who will, until election day, have to deal with the bitter divide stirred by Bernie Sanders, some of whose supporters say they will vote for Trump if they can’t have Bernie.
What?
You would give the country to a flawed AND unqualified candidate out of spite?
No wonder I was thinking today that I am living in Cloudcuckooland.
Republicans, look at your candidate. You are about to officially nominate a racist bigot to head the ticket of the Republican Party, Lincoln’s party, the man who freed slaves.
He is criticizing an American born judge who is presiding over a case against him because he is of Hispanic heritage and encouraging his supporters to denounce the man.
The man, albeit a billionaire [we think], is pandering to the worst instincts in our culture and is absolutely not calling us to be better, to be greater, to actually deal with the very serious issues facing America today. He is calling us back to a past we had thought we had escaped…
But before I go today it is the anniversary of D-Day. Salutations to those men who served our country, waded into death and took back Europe from the Nazis. All honor to them. Thank you.
Tags:Aristophanes, Bernie Sanders, Cloudcuckooland, D-Day, Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton, Martha's Vineyard, Mat Tombers, Mathew Tombers, Nazis, Teterboro, The Birds, The Donald, Tom Fudali
Posted in 2016 Election, Martha's Vineyard, Mat Tombers, Mathew Tombers, Media, Political Commentary, Politics, Social Commentary, Trump, Uncategorized, World War II | Leave a Comment »
June 2, 2016
It is Wednesday evening, the 1st of June and it has been a lovely day on the Vineyard. I woke to a brilliant sun, skiffing off the water in the harbor, glinting up into my room.
It was a quiet day at Edgartown Books. I came home relatively early and am sitting down to write a letter while the sun slips away, beneath clouds that are rolling in from the ocean, promising a cooler and less brilliant day tomorrow.
Before his death, my father was the Minneapolis Manager for Taystee Bread and all of his children were taught to straighten up the loaves of our bread in any market we went into. I am feeling that way about the books in the shop. If I see something out of alignment, I get itchy to go fix it, make it neat.
Before leaving the house today, I checked the news online.
Documents from Trump University and statements from its former employees made the “university” sound more a scam than an educational opportunity. One manager called it a “fraudulent scheme.” Ouch. The principle seemed to be sell, not educate.
But, it must be noted, the program did have its supporters.
If elected, Trump could become the first President elect to have to testify in a fraud trial against himself.
Hillary Clinton seized the day and the news, using the Trump University documents as a reason to call Trump a fraud. I am sure he will call her a loser; he thinks everyone but him is a loser.
Later in the day, my phoned pinged with a news update: there was an apparent murder/suicide on the campus of UCLA. The reasons are yet unknown; it appears a student shot a professor and then himself.
A French ship has detected another sort of ping, from one of the Black Box recorders from the Egypt Air Airbus which crashed into the sea.
Saudi Arabia, which is attempting to diversify its oil economy, has invested $3.25 billion in Uber, which also looks at the Mideast as a great place to grow its business. And since Saudi Arabia doesn’t allow women to drive, having the service may give its women more freedom.
In Mogadishu, capital of tattered Somalia, a car bomb went off and killed at least 15.
While watching the news with Jeffrey, I discovered that today would have been Marilyn Monroe’s 90th birthday, had she not died in 1962. From the time of her discovery until her death, she lived 17 tumultuous, star crossed years and remains one of Hollywood’s most potent icons.
Once upon a time, in my early days in Hollywood, I did research for some Hollywood writers, among them Richard Lamparski who wrote all the “Whatever Became Of…?” books. He called her death “a good career move.”
Tragically, he was right. In death she has earned far more than in life. While Elizabeth Taylor was earning a million a film, she was being paid a hundred thousand. Monroe’s estate has carefully managed her assets and through licensing has made millions every year.
I remember as a little boy bringing in the morning paper with huge headlines: MARILYN MONROE DEAD. I couldn’t believe it. But it was true. And she is wound together in the Kennedy mythology because she reportedly slept both with John F. and Robert Kennedy.
It is even said she called Jackie to tell her that she was having an affair with Jack Kennedy. Reportedly, Jackie responded: go ahead, marry him. Then you have all the problems.
My god, but what figures played on the world stage then. The Kennedys, all of them… Marilyn Monroe, Elizabeth Taylor, Jackie Kennedy Onassis, Martin Luther King, Lyndon Johnson, great figures who dwarf what we offer today.
Obama and Hillary Clinton will go down in history. He the first black President, she, win or lose, the first woman to credibly march toward the Presidency.
But my childhood was filled with giants and there are few of them left. Jack Kennedy may have been one of the most flawed men to sit in the Oval Office yet we cannot not seem to love him and his era.
That Trump is a serious contender for the Presidency points to the paucity of spirit in this time. Really, Trump? A bombastic, narcissistic loon who seems more related to Mussolini than to Lincoln is going to be the Republican nominee for President?
As someone who is, I think, a thinking American, I am APPALLED.
However, as a commentator said the other day: hey, it’s 2016, anything can happen.
The light has faded over Edgartown harbor and as my battery grows low on my laptop, I must cease.
Really, Trump? This is the best the Republicans can do? Where is Everett Dirksen when we need him?
Tags:Donald Trump, Edgartown Books, Egypt Air, Elizabeth Taylor, Hillary Clinton, Jack Kennedy, Jackie Kennedy Onassis, Lyndon Johnson, Marilyn Monroe, Martin Luther King, Mat Tombers, Mathew Tombers, Mogadishu, Obama, Robert Kennedy, Saudi Arabia, Somalia bombing, Taystee Bread, The Donald, Trump University, Uber, UCLA shootings
Posted in 2016 Election, Entertainment, Hillary Clinton, Hollywood, Martha's Vineyard, Mat Tombers, Mathew Tombers, Media, Mideast, Obama, Political Commentary, Politics, Social Commentary, Television, Trump, Uncategorized | Leave a Comment »
May 23, 2016
It is Monday morning and I am riding an overcrowded train from Baltimore to New York after spending the weekend there visiting friends. At one point I thought I might end up sitting on the floor but found a seat at the very front of the train.
Outside ruined building pass; we are somewhere just north of Philadelphia. Exotic graffiti adorns them while the sun blasts down. Beyond the ruins lie bedraggled row houses that probably will someday be gentrified. What contrasts we have in this country.
Baltimore is in a resurgence, at least near the water, where my friends live. We dined on Saturday night at Peter’s Inn, a wonderfully, quirky little row house restaurant, rough around the edges with handwritten menus, food arriving in the order that the chef has prepared it which is not necessarily the way you ordered it. Good chill martinis and a nice little wine list, friendly people and that wonderful thing called “atmosphere” that has not been scrupulously concocted but which emerges from the quirkiness of the place and people.
It was a time of sitting around and visiting with Lionel and Pierre and my friend Allen Skarsgard, with whom I had some long philosophical conversations over the weekend. We had known each other in the long ago and faraway, reconnecting just enough that we can mark the present without dwelling in our past.
There was, of course, talk of the brutal politics of this election cycle. I don’t remember a question that was asked on MSNBC on Sunday morning but recall the response: it’s 2016, ANYTHING can happen.
So it seems.
As it seems all over the world. A far right candidate is deadlocked with his rival in Austria. If Herbert Norber of the right wins, it will be the first time a far right candidate will have won a European election since the end of Fascism, a warning shot across the bow of the world.
Troubling for Hillary are national polls, of which we have several a day it seems, that have her potentially losing to Trump. They have Bernie beating Trump by 10.8 points.
Predictions are that a “Brexit” from the European Union will spark a year long recession. The drive for a British exit from the European Union is, at least partially, being driven by anti-immigration and nationalistic feelings in the country.
Is this a bit like what the 1930’s felt like?
In the meantime, Emma Watson of “Harry Potter” fame and fortune is playing Belle in a live action version of “Beauty and the Beast.” Somehow that seems comforting to me this morning.
In Syria, IS has claimed the responsibility for killing scores in that poor, broken country in areas considered Assad strongholds. A suicide bomber killed many Army recruits in Aden, Yemen.
And a drone strike killed the leader of the Taliban, Mullah Mansour, who opposed peace talks. His death was confirmed by Obama, who will be the first sitting President to visit Hiroshima, struck by the US with an atomic bomb in !945, a move which forced the Japanese to move to surrender. He has been in Viet Nam, where he lifted a fifty year old arms embargo, a move to help counter the rise of China in the South China Sea.
Moves and counter moves, the world is in play. It always has been. It just took longer in other times for the moves to be made and to feel their repercussions. Now it’s almost instantaneous.
Tags:Allen Skarsgard, Austrian Election, Baltimore, Bernie Sanders, Brexit, China, Donald Trump, Herbert Norber, Hillary Clinton, Hiroshima, Lionel White, Mat Tombers, Mathew Tombers, Mullah Mansour, Obama, Peter's Inn, Pierre Font, Russia, Syria, The Donald, Viet Nam, Yemen
Posted in 2016 Election, Afghanistan, Elections, Entertainment, European Refugee Crisis, Hillary Clinton, Hollywood, Mat Tombers, Mathew Tombers, Media, Mideast, Nazis, Political Commentary, Politics, Sanders, Social Commentary, Syria, Syrian Refugee Crisis, Trump, Uncategorized | Leave a Comment »
May 16, 2016
This is one of the most enjoyable moments I have in a week, sitting at the dining room table, jazz playing in the background, the sun setting, looking across the deck to the wild woods across the creek, pulling together my thoughts as the sun slowly sets.
This morning I re-read my last online post [www.mathewtombers.com]. In the last part I wrote about Islam and the West having to come to terms with each other and as I read it I thought: whoa, Islam must come to peace with itself. IS is mostly killing other Muslims. Those numbers dwarf the numbers they have killed in Paris and Brussels and New York and London. They die by the hundreds and thousands in Iraq and Syria alone. Not to mention Yemen, which seems to be to Sunni and Shia what Spain was to Fascists and Republicans in the 1930’s.
We note with great care and deep exegesis the murders in the West and the daily drumbeat of death in Baghdad, Aleppo and Yemen is a footnote. Muslims are mostly slaughtering other Muslims.
Not unlike the way Christians slaughtered other Christians in the 15th, 16th and 17th Centuries. We had the Thirty Year War, which started as a religious war and became so much more. The Muslims seem to be having their Thirty Year War and it is much scarier because technology is so much more advanced.
And while they fight amongst themselves, some of them rage against the West, those who are Fundamentalist Muslims. They see us as abominations.
One late night here at the cottage I wondered if I was living a bit like a Roman in the 2nd or 3rd Century CE, knowing the darkness was coming and unable to prevent it so enjoying the present as much as possible.
That’s a bit melodramatic I suppose. Events are still playing out. Outcomes can be changed.
The forces at work in our lives are terrifying. We have a saber rattling Putin, who denies everything negative, and a major religion that is going through an existential crisis, manyßåå of them thinking nothing of killing as a policy.
In college, I took an Honors course on Medieval Islamic Civilization and they were civilized. Something has gone very wrong there and, hopefully, for all of us, they will sort it out.
In the meantime, the rest of the world keeps moving.
May is Mental Health Awareness Month.
Not being mentally healthy is a debilitating stigma many carry. As someone who has been in therapy since he was sixteen, I empathize. It is not, in many places, åstill, now, acceptable to talk about.
And it saved my life. And in the years between then and now, many members of my family have taken me aside to thank me for having broken the dam. I was the first and I was pretty loud about it too. Everyone knew. Everyone rolled their eyes at me, then they began quietly to look for their own therapists.
We are still dealing with racial issues and we are still dealing with mental stigmas. So good there is a Mental Health Awareness Month. We need all the mental health we can get.
Our politics continue to look like a sideshow. Friends who live in Japan, Australia, Europe ask me what is going on? I don’t know. Does anyone? There has been nothing like this in my lifetime and it is a bit scary.
I have been reading articles about the raucous Nevada Democratic Convention and I haven’t parsed the events quite but there was a showdown between the Bernie supporters and the Hillary supporters. Hillary won but her supporters are worried about a similar scene playing out at the national convention.
It has grown dark now. The sun has set. While it is mid-May, the temperature is going down to 34 tonight so we are not actually in real Spring yet. I had to turn up the heat tonight. I might yet light a fire.
The jazz lures me to a quiet place of introspection.
Tags:Bernie Sanders, Claverack, Donald Trump, Fundamentalist Muslims, Hillary Clinton, Hudson, IS, Isis, Jazz, Mat Tombers, Mathew Tombers, Mental Health Awareness Month, New York, Obama, Putin, Red Dot, Russia, Syria, The Donald, Thirty Years War
Posted in 2016 Election, Brussels terror attack, Civil Rights, Claverack, Columbia County, Daesh, Elections, Entertainment, Greene County New York, Hillary Clinton, Hudson New York, Iran, IS, Mat Tombers, Mathew Tombers, Media, Mideast, Nazis, Paris Attacks, Political Commentary, Politics, Social Commentary, Taliban, Trump, Uncategorized | Leave a Comment »
May 7, 2016
The town of Fort McMurray, in the heart of Canada’s oil patch, is burning to the ground as I write. 88,000 people are being evacuated. One who has remained to assist in fueling emergency workers described the city, according to Vice, as a “f**king ghost town.” Reports are calling the situation barely managed chaos. Convoys are transporting people out of town and 8,000 have been airlifted out.
The Prime Minister of Turkey has resigned after a fight with President Erdogan. As I understand it, in Turkey it’s the PM who is supposed to have the power while the President does the meeting and the greeting. Erdogan doesn’t see it that way and has been keeping hold on the reins of power. This resignation makes it easier for Erdogan to consolidate power. Turkey is troubled, fighting a Kurdish insurgency, IS, wrestling with refugees and a population that is growing antagonistic to Erdogan.
I still would like to go back to the “Turquoise Coast” of that country, sun dappled and bucolic.
Not bucolic is the state of American politics. Trump continues to rise and has no opposition on his march to the nomination. Cruz and Kasich are gone. The Presidents Bush, number 41 and 43, have signaled they will not endorse him. Paul Ryan is “not ready” at this time to endorse Trump. The Trump campaign approached over a hundred Republican politicos to say something good about Trump. Only twenty responded; the others were “too busy.”
As I gave my last lecture, the students were commenting on how exhausted they were of the political season and the near certainty that Trump will be the Republican nominee has only heightened their distaste for politics; all suspect an ugly, brutal slugfest between the two candidates, neither of whom they admire, assuming Hillary is nominated, as it looks she will. The aspirational nature of politics has slipped away from us.
And before it is done, something like $4 billion will be spent on this election, twice what was spent in 2012.
President Obama implored reporters to focus on issues and not “the spectacle and circus” that has marked coverage so far of the 2016 Presidential race. After all, being President of the United States is “not a reality show.” Amen…
A Fort Valley State University student, in central Georgia, was stabbed to death as he came to aid three women who were being harassed and groped near the school cafeteria. Rest in peace, Donnell Phelps, all of nineteen.
Two are dead and two are wounded in shootings is suburban Maryland, three at Montgomery Mall, where I have shopped and one at a grocery store nine miles away. One man is believed responsible. If it is the man police suspect, he killed his wife last night when she was at school, picking up their children. He was under court order to stay away from her.
It is a grey afternoon as I write this, in a stretch of chill, grey days and news like the above deepens the pall of the day.
If you are feeling grey because “Downton Abbey” has slipped into the past, its creator, Julian Fellowes, took Trollope’s novel, “Doctor Thorne” and brought it to life. Amazon has purchased it and will stream it beginning May 20. Fill a hole in your viewing heart.
In my heart, I want a new iPhone and I am probably going to wait until the fall when Tim Cook, CEO of Apple, tells us that the iPhone 7 will give us features we can’t live without. What they are, I don’t know. I am writing this on a train going north and can’t stream on Amtrak’s wifi.
Speaking of Amtrak, I booked a trip from New York to Minneapolis on the train for July 20th to visit my brother and his family. I am taking a train to DC, the Capital Limited out of there to Chicago and the Empire Builder from Chicago to Minneapolis. I hope it will be good fun.
Fun seems to be what we need these days. Our politics are not fun. The constant barrage of shootings is not fun, not remotely. The economy, while growing, isn’t growing fast enough which is not fun.
What will be fun is that Lionel and Pierre are going to be at their home across the street from me this weekend and I will get to see them.
Tags:Amtrak, Anthony Trollope, Claverack, Cruz, Doctor Thorne, Donald Trump, Donnell Phellps, Downton Abbey, Erdogan, Fort McMurray, George HW Bush, George W. Bush, Hillary Clinton, Hudson, iPhone7, Julian Fellowes, Kasisch, Lionel White, Mat Tombers, Mathew Tombers, New York, Obama, Pierre Font, Tim Cook, Turkey, Vice
Posted in 2016 Election, Claverack, Columbia County, Elections, Entertainment, Greene County New York, Hillary Clinton, Hudson New York, Mat Tombers, Mathew Tombers, Media, Political Commentary, Politics, Social Commentary, Television, Trump, Uncategorized | Leave a Comment »
April 30, 2016
The day began with a conversation over coffee with my friend Robert Murray about Wednesday’s remarks by former Speaker of the House, John Boehner, that Ted Cruz was “Lucifer in the flesh” and that he “was the most miserable son of a bitch” that Boehner had ever worked with.
Ouch! Gloves off, totally off.
Boehner, apparently, has never forgiven Cruz for his part in the 2013 government shutdown.
We discussed how stunning it was that such a prominent Republican has said such harsh words about a front runner for the Presidential nomination of their own party.
It is probable that Trump will be the Republican Presidential nominee and Boehner said that he would vote for him, if he was, which is far short of an enthusiastic endorsement.
Is there anyone we are enthusiastic about in this election? I don’t think so.
At the Republican Convention in California, there was a tense stand-off between Trump protesters and police as hundreds stormed the convention in protest of Trump. Railing at the man doesn’t some to be doing much good. He is the juggernaut the Republicans did not expect.
To my surprise, though it shouldn’t be, 75 years ago “Citizen Kane” premiered and changed movies forever. Lili St. Cyr, last of the great strippers, who I knew in Los Angeles, briefly had an affair with him while he was making the movie. Filmmaker after filmmaker has given him homage in their own films and his legend will live on.
Obama is seeking to shore up his legacy, if not his legend, with interviews about his years as President. I suspect, though I know many will not agree with me, that history will be kinder to him than his contemporaries.
Prince, recently dead, had a bad hip and being a Jehovah’s Witness, was not going to have a replacement. He had been given pain pills to help and it may be that they played a part in his demise. Police have obtained a search warrant for his home and have raided a Walgreen’s Pharmacy where Prince had his prescriptions filled. Results from his autopsy will be available in a month or so. As he died without a will, it will be an epic battle, probably, over his estate, including all the songs he never released.
In Syria, the fragile truce has frayed and Aleppo has returned to full scale war. A hospital was bombed and the fatalities rise. Secretary Kerry has been on the phone with Lavrov of Russia, working to get some sort of end to the tragedy.
It is being wondered if Syria’s President Assad has been dealing with IS, buying its oil. Which would certainly give another wicked twist to the tragedy in Syria.
The Romans, in their day, ruled Syria and Spain and today, in Seville, in Spain, a group of workers repairing water pipes found 19 amphora or jars filled with Roman coins from the time of Constantine — the Emperor who embraced Christianity. The find is worth millions of Euros.
While all these things go on, I am now back at the cottage, There is a fall like chill in the air so I have lit a fire in the Franklin Stove and cranked up some jazz from Amazon Prime Music. It is cozy and comfortable, a contented Friday evening.
The creek at twilight tonight…
Tags:Citizen Kane, Claverack, Constantine the Emperor, Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton, Hudson, IS, Isis, John Boehner, John Kerry, Lilli St. Cyr, Mat Tombers, Mathew Tombers, New York, Obama, Orson Welles, Prince, Robert Murray, Roman Empire, Syria, Ted Cruz
Posted in 2016 Election, Afghanistan, Claverack, Columbia County, Entertainment, Greene County New York, Hillary Clinton, Hudson New York, IS, Mat Tombers, Mathew Tombers, Media, Mideast, Political Commentary, Politics, Syria, Trump, Uncategorized | Leave a Comment »
April 8, 2016
It’s quiet in the cottage; I haven’t decided on what music I might want to hear. For right now, the silence is good.
The snow is almost gone, what was left was melted by yesterday’s sun and today’s rain. When I woke this morning, I was in an awfully good mood for no good reason. Later in the day, with torrential rain falling, I was not in so good a mood. I followed the day into darkness and had to work to be out of it.
Last night I went to The Dot for an original one act play by a local writer. Actually, it is a three act play being played out over three weeks. So last night was really Act One. I’ll be back for Act II next week. And Act III the week after that…
It is a night when it is good to be cozied in the cottage. It is chilling outside though the day was warm, if wet.
While running my errands today, I heard Hillary Clinton talking and she sounded hoarse and exhausted. I felt sorry for her. Bernie Sanders is sounding chipper and he should be — he has won all of the last six contests. Now the focus is on New York State where Hillary and Bernie seem running neck and neck.
It may be a pivot point in the Democratic run for the Presidential nomination. We’ll see.
Ted Cruz is not doing so well here; it appears all New Yorkers, upstate and down, are having more than a little trouble forgiving him his “New York values” statement about Trump. From what I have been reading, his New York stumping is not doing well.
67% of Americans don’t like Donald Trump but that might now be enough to stop him from getting the nomination. Cruz desperately wants Kasich to drop out, something he seems to have no intention of doing. In a brokered convention, he might have a shot.
It is the wildest year in politics I have seen in my lifetime and I am watching it all play out. As a registered independent, I cannot vote in the Primary. I will follow the results avidly.
In the meantime, IS, driven out of Palmyra where they made ruins of the ruins, have kidnapped something like 300 in a suburb of Damascus, factory workers who have now entered a nightmare.
We have the Panama Papers. David Cameron, Prime Minister of the UK, has benefitted from an offshore company set up by him late father but it all seems inconsequential.
Many of Putin’s friends have been named. Putin says this is all a Western conspiracy to weaken Russia. He has not been named and he points that out. What the West is trying for is “guilt by association.” I wonder what future weeks will bring?
It is getting later and there is still no music in the cottage. I am ending for today.
Today reminded me of the wild ride of emotions we all live through on a given day.
Good night.
Tags:Claverack, Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton, Hudson, IS, Isis, Mat Tombers, Mathew Tombers, New York, Obama, Putin, Red Dot
Posted in 2016 Election, Claverack, Columbia County, depression, Elections, Entertainment, Greene County New York, Hillary Clinton, Hollywood, Hudson New York, Mat Tombers, Mathew Tombers, Media, Political Commentary, Politics, Putin, Russia, Social Commentary, Television, Trump, Uncategorized | Leave a Comment »
March 29, 2016
It is Tuesday afternoon, late; my version of “God’s Little Acre” is bathed in golden sunlight with the temp in the 40’s.
How that really feels like, I haven’t a clue. Prepping for the Easter brunch took it all out of me, I’m afraid.
I slept most of Monday, drifting off at 5:00 last evening and waking at 8:00 this morning. My meetings out of the house were all, thankfully, moved to other days and I rested, doing conference calls from the warmth of my bed and my terry cloth bathrobe.
As that saying goes, I guess I’m not as young as I used to be…
It’s not bad and I’m not upset about it; it is just that I have to learn what my new limits are at this age. I can’t go almost straight for 72 hours and not feel some serious consequences.
Everyone has told me it was a great success and I’m glad. Sally Brodsky did a yeoman’s job of helping me even though she was under the weather. There would have been no clean-up if it weren’t for Katerina. Thanks to April, also, and a couple of others whose names have flitted out of my head.
Going to Christ Church with Lionel and Pierre started giving me a sense of community and after they left, I have continued going, making some new friends along the way.
Not so long ago, I did a call with Louise Rosen who has worked in television as long as me and has been doing that and producing the Maine Jewish Film Festival the last four years. We, of course, talked about the changes in the business and the differences of living in Maine and Columbia County and that of living in New York City or Boston or DC.
“It’s nice sometimes to be a bit removed from the chaos,” she said and I agreed.
On Friday, I am moderating a panel on “How To Build A Better Blog” for the Religious Communicators Conference and as I was prepping for my call and scouring the Internet for some topics to throw at my panel, successful bloggers all, I was wondering what I might do to improve my blog?
I find that I am in the group who blogs to give their voice a platform but perhaps there is more that I should be doing.
Do any of you have ideas? Let me know what I can do to make this better, to resonate more for you. I do it because I enjoy it and am glad that there are folks out there who read it and sometimes comment.
But seriously, what can I do to be better?
P.S. RIP, Patty Duke, aka Anna Pearce
Tags:"God's Little Acre", Claverack, Columbia County, Hudson, Mat Tombers, Mathew Tombers, New York
Posted in 2016 Election, Afghanistan, Claverack, Columbia County, Entertainment, Gay, Greene County New York, Hollywood, Hudson New York, Mat Tombers, Mathew Tombers, Media, Political, Political Commentary, Politics, Social Commentary, Uncategorized | Leave a Comment »
March 25, 2016
Darkness has descended on the Hudson Valley; it is pitch black outside though I am heartened everyday by the weather person’s announcement we had three or so more minutes of daylight today than yesterday.
I’ve adjusted the timers on lights to accommodate the increasing daylight. I rejoice as I am sure everyone does.
My dining room table is scattered with recipes from which I will choose the ones being made for Easter. I am getting it organized. I bought upgraded plastic silverware for Sunday. Since I am doing this, I want it to be a little special — or a lot special.
In the morning I will winnow down the recipes and head out to do my shopping. My friend Robert has given me eight dozen eggs from the chickens who live at his house down in Rhinebeck. I had some for lunch. There is nothing like farm fresh eggs!
While I am typing this, Christ Church is celebrating Maundy Thursday and I wasn’t feeling very churchy tonight so I didn’t go.
Probably feeling more churchy than I do, or at least one would hope so, is Radovan Karadzic, the former Serb leader who was convicted today of genocide during the horrific Serbian conflict twenty-one years ago. Eight thousand Muslim men and boys were slaughtered in a town called Srebrenica. Justice finally has been done though it will not bring back those men and boys whose only crime was that they were born Muslim.
At the time, when it was revealed, I felt horror and I feel it today. There was a time when such things happened to Christians; indeed, they are happening today to Christians at the hands of IS. It is things like Srebrenica that make IS feel justified.
It’s been a happy day for me, feeling far from all the world’s troubles, tooling around Columbia County, collecting mail, a couple of meetings with organizations I am volunteering with, a haircut, bumping into people on the street and having a good conversation with them.
While I was doing those fun things, the police in Paris foiled an alleged terror attack in advanced stages. Obama apologized in Argentina for some of our policies and actions during their long and very dirty internal war. I suspect we turned too blind an eye to some things.
Belgium and Europe in general are struggling to balance freedom and safety in the fight against terrorist attacks.
In America, Ted Cruz and Donald Trump are exploiting our fears in their campaigns; loudly criticized and, I think, rightly so, by Obama. And I think by Hillary and Bernie, too.
Syrian troops loyal to Assad are in the suburbs of Palmyra in the early stages of reclaiming the city from IS, which has this year lost 21% of the territory it controlled. The monuments destroyed are gone and it will be good if the city can be liberated. It has suffered terribly.
At the same time, Iraqi troops are advancing into Mosul, using lessons from the recapture of Ramadi to help them win back this important Iraqi city. Many of the historical treasures there are gone also, never to be seen again.
I do not live in their mindset and cannot come close to comprehending why it was necessary for them to destroy the heritage of the planet. But they did. It ranks up there with the killings at Srebrenica. Maybe it doesn’t. At Srebrenica those were living beings that were destroyed. At Palmyra and Mosul, it was the artifacts of the past that helped create the world in which we now live.
There are echoes of that world here in the cottage. I have treasured artifacts from the past and things that echo them. Someday, when I am gone, all this will be scattered, some thrown away but in the time they have had with me I have been grateful for their presence.
There is a small collection of masks, a recreation of a bust of Athena from Greece, a painting from India that evokes Alexander, a Renoir re-strike, a wonderful painting from a Provincetown gallery of Alexander.
We need the past to build the future, to connect ourselves from where we were to where we are going.
Tags:Alexander the Great, Assad, Christ Church, Christ Church Episcopal, Claverack, Columbia County, Donald Trump, Easter, Hillary Clinton, Hudson, Iraq, IS, Mat Tombers, Mathew Tombers, Mosul, Obama, Palmyra, Radovan Karadzic, Srebrenica, Syria, Ted Cruz, The Donald
Posted in 2016 Election, Brussels terror attack, Claverack, Columbia County, Daesh, Elections, Entertainment, European Refugee Crisis, Hudson New York, IS, Life, Mat Tombers, Mathew Tombers, Media, Mideast, Political Commentary, Politics, Social Commentary, Syria, Syrian Refugee Crisis, Trump, Uncategorized | Leave a Comment »
Letter from the Vineyard 
Letter From New York via Martha’s Vineyard 06 13 2016 Numb but furious. Where have all the flowers gone?
June 14, 2016Yesterday, as I suspect most people did, I woke to the horror of the Orlando massacre. Rubbing the sleep out of my eyes, I kept wondering if I was actually reading what I was reading.
Of course I was.
Not long ago I emailed a friend, now living in Florida, that I felt furious and, at the same time, numbed. I am angry and do not know a single thing I can do that will actually help affect any kind of real change. A New Yorker, both my Senators support more stringent laws regarding guns. It will do no good to write them. Obama sits on my side of the issue.
And any letter I write to a Republican, I fear, will lend no weight. I have tried. Somehow I end up on their mailing lists, thanking me for being a supporter. When Bush was President, I wrote a letter demanding he not invade Iraq. For years, I received Christmas cards and photos of W. and Laura, thanking me for my loyalty to them.
Same with my local Congressman…
They are not listening.
It is twilight here on Martha’s Vineyard. A few boats skiff across the harbor. From where I sit, I can see the Edgartown lighthouse. I am sipping a glass of wine, lost in the quiet and the beauty, furious and numb.
As I was not needed at Edgartown Books, I headed out in my car today, turning left at the end of the driveway and letting fate take me where it will. For awhile, as I drove, I listened to NPR programs doing an exegesis of yesterday’s tragedy, the worst mass shooting in the country.
As he holed up with terrified people, Omar Mateen, the shooter, called 911 to let them know he was doing this because he was pledging allegiance to IS, calling the Boston bombers from its Marathon his “brothers.”
As I listened, the portrait of Omar Mateen was beginning to reveal itself to those who were attempting to figure out what had happened. He was American born, apparently radicalized via the Internet, probably bi-polar, an abusive husband, worked for a security firm, had been interviewed at least twice by the FBI because of statements he made or actions performed.
He bought his guns legally. He bought his guns legally, after all that. He killed 49 people and died himself. 53 others are wounded.
He was offended by seeing two men kiss. But his parents didn’t think he was unhinged.
Trump tweeted in peacock pride about being right about Muslims except Omar Mateen was born in America of Afghan parents. He was a US citizen by birth, no act would keep him out. He didn’t come here perverted. He was born here and was perverted by God knows exactly what…
He attacked a gay nightclub, Pulse. It is Gay Pride Month. It is also Immigration Month. It was Latin night at Pulse. Kill two birds with one stone? Hate amplified?
As I drove the island today, I felt lonely, in the way I felt lonely when I was young and watched as Viet Nam unfolded before me and about which I felt powerless until I played hooky from school and joined a march against the war.
We have no marches these days. We don’t gather together to scream against the violence. Perhaps that is why I felt lonely today; I have comrades but we do not come together, we do not march together, we do not sing songs of protest together against the outrageousness of the time in which we live.
Sitting here, watching the pink tinged sky while a small boat motors across the harbor, I am still numb and I am still furious. What do I do with this?
And in the back of my head, all day has been the thought: where have all the flowers gone?
Tags:Boston Marathon Bombing, Donald Trump, Edgartown, Gay, Gay Pride, Hudson, Immigration Month, Iraq, IS, Martha's Vineyard, Mat Tombers, Mathew Tombers, Obama, Omar Mateen, Pulse, The Donald, Where have all the flowers gone?
Posted in 2016 Election, Afghanistan, Daesh, depression, Gay, Gay Liberation, IS, Martha's Vineyard, Mat Tombers, Mathew Tombers, Media, Mideast, Obama, Politics, Social Commentary, Television, Trump, Uncategorized | 2 Comments »