Posts Tagged ‘Hillary Clinton’
August 26, 2016
It has been a grey and gloomy day in Claverack, always threatening to rain but not managing it. Tomorrow is also supposed to be this way though with more chance of rain. I was out for a couple of meetings and errands and have been home since then working on a few projects, mostly getting ready to teach Public Speaking in the Fall at Columbia Greene Community College.
It is dark earlier now. It is not yet 7:15 and the light is leaving quickly. Behind me is the thrum of the dishwasher; otherwise there is silence. I told a friend I woke up happy, which I did.
As I lived my quiet day, rescuers in Italy searched the ruins left by a lethal earthquake, looking for survivors as the clock ticks the chances away. Aftershocks rattled them as they searched. At least 250 are dead and another 350+ injured. A Polish immigrant living in the town of Amatrice, said she will remember until she dies “the evil murmur of moving walls.”
Those who have debilitating allergies often carry EpiPens with them, a now common safety device. Mylan, the company that makes them, has raised the price dramatically as a generic alternative will become available in the not too distant future. Apparently, this is not unusual for drug companies to wring the last round of profits from a medicine in the months before a generic alternative becomes available.
It happened to me, a few years ago. Something I was taking suddenly skyrocketed in price and I had to switch to an alternative.
Nine years ago, an EpiPen cost $47, today, $284. No wonder there is an outcry. And the EpiPen, it seems, was developed by the US Department of Defense as something for soldiers in the field to use for nerve gas and then it was discovered it worked on allergies.
Congress is talking an investigation. I have friends who carry them. In the meantime, people who need them maybe are being out priced from having them.
I love nights like this. Outside the floodlights illuminate the creek. Beatrice, my ever growing banana plant, continues her climb to the ceiling. And I enjoy the tranquility of the cottage.
The Chairman of Vice Media, Shane Smith, who runs the digital behemoth that has attracted investment from Disney and Fox, says that a “digital media crisis is coming.” Yes, it is. It has been for twenty years now, growing slowly until it now has become the crisis no one can avoid. When I was, long ago and far away, working in the cable business no one in broadcasting thought of us as a menace, until we were. So with digital… It was not a menace, until it was… The crisis is here and has been from almost the moment it began but media has been an ostrich in the sand.
The political campaigns go on. I don’t pay much attention right now. Trump has accused Hillary of being a bigot. She’s done the same to him. The beat goes on. It will until it is over.
Nigel Farage, once head of UKIP and a leader in BREXIT, campaigned today with Trump, basically endorsing him for President. I am not sure that is going to mean much to Trump’s core constituency… Or maybe it will mean a lot to that constituency.
As I have been writing this, an email came in. Vidya, wife of my friend Tim Sparke, let me know he passed away yesterday afternoon. He waged a remarkable war for years against brain tumors and is now gone.
Hats off, Tim. You worked to stay for your children and your wife and you went on longer than any of us would have dreamt that you could. You would not give up. I was changed by knowing you. When I was remarkably low eleven years ago you did your best to raise my spirits and cause me to laugh.
You were a generous spirit. Since you have been sick and I have been going to church, I have been lighting a candle for you and I will again this weekend, to celebrate the wonderful moments we had together, the generosity you gave me and the spirit you were in this world.
Tags:Amatrice, Claverack, Disney, Donald Trump, EpiPen, Hillary Clinton, Hudson, Italian Earthquake, Mat Tombers, Mathew Tombers, Mylan, Nigel Farage, Shane Smith, The Donald, Tim Sparke, UKIP, Vice Media
Posted in 2016 Election, Claverack, Columbia County, Education, Entertainment, Hillary Clinton, Hudson New York, Mat Tombers, Mathew Tombers, Media, Television, Trump, Uncategorized | 1 Comment »
August 24, 2016
It is later in the evening than I normally write; I did a roundtrip to the city today. There were a couple of meetings and then I turned around and returned to the cottage. It is dark. I have turned on the floodlights so I can see the creek glitter with their light. The trees are silhouetted by the light, green and verdant. Nights like this are ones I love, with the floodlights giving an eerie beauty to what I see in the day.
Earlier today I had a long and good conversation with Sarah, who is my oldest friend. We have known each other since we were three and except for one brief period have been a close part of each other’s lives. She is one of the most loving and caring women I have known in my life and has always been that way.
In 7th grade, when Sister Jeron knocked me on the back of the head with a Gregorian Hymnal, humiliating me in front of our class, Sarah turned up that evening with one of her brothers and we went sledding down the hill by our house. She knew I was hurting and came to help take the hurt away. I remember that night as if it were yesterday.
Since I last wrote not much has changed in the world. Aleppo is still a horror show. Omran, the child in the photo, still haunts my dreams.
There are bombings hither and thither. A Turkish wedding was destroyed by a suicide bomber who may have been no more than fourteen. It was not the only bombing but it seems the most tragic with a child being used as a weapon.
Trump is attempting to moderate his tone and I hope it is too late. Hillary is caught in the crossfire of the Foundation and her emails, which probably will never go away. Even if she wins the Presidency, the Republicans will be chasing those emails and Benghazi into the next century.
The state of our politics this year is deplorable. While discouraged, I remain hopeful that some good will come from all of this. It must.
Out there in the wide world, North Korea has fired a missile from a submarine toward Japan. Provocative as ever, the chubby little dictator is testing the limits of what he can get away with.
Remember the Boko Haram? One of their leaders may have been badly wounded in a Nigerian airstrike. I hope so.
The Iraqis are intent on reclaiming Mosul. More than a million people will be displaced if they do it, according to estimates. More refugees in this horrific war that never ends…
The Brits voted for Brexit and Brexiting are a large number of corporations who are moving their money out of Britain. Not good for Britain who is going to have to do a lot of juggling with this Brexit thing…
It is late. I am distracted.
Long ago and far away, I was friends with the Elsen family. Don Elsen, patriarch of the clan, passed away today. He was 90, lived a good long life. I saw him a year ago. Unable to walk, he managed the world with a motorized wheel chair, mentally sharp as ever.
They were descendants of Germans and when I was with them, they could be screaming at each other and then burst into laughter and hug and hold each other. It was amazing. They were all full of love and Don was one of the most generous souls I have known in this life.
God rest. Keep safe. Be reunited in heaven with your beloved wife, Betty. Your son, Jeffrey, and your brothers who went before you.
May I have such a homecoming someday.
Tags:Aleppo, Benghazi, Boko Haram, Brexit, Claverack, Don Elsen, Donald Trump, Elsen, Hillary Clinton, Hudson, Iragis, Iraq, IS, Isis, Mat Tombers, Mathew Tombers, Mosul, Nigeria, Obama, Omran, Politics, Russia, Sarah Malone, Sister Jeron, Syria, The Donald
Posted in 2016 Election, 9/11, Afghanistan, Boko Haram, Claverack, Columbia County, Hillary Clinton, Hollywood, Homelessness, Hudson New York, IS, Mat Tombers, Mathew Tombers, Media, Obama, Political, Political Commentary, Social Commentary, Syria, Syrian Refugee Crisis, Taliban, Trump, Uncategorized | Leave a Comment »
August 21, 2016
It is not all that late on a Saturday evening, about 6:45 EDT as I start putting my fingers to the keyboard. When I woke this morning, the sight outside my windows was a patchwork of hues of green, mixed with sunlight, all of it changing with the soft wind blowing this morning. When I touched base with myself as I rubbed the sleep out of my eyes I was happy. As I am most days…
The creek is low; we’ve not had enough rain but it still flows. The trees are exquisite in their leafy greenness but just across the creek the tree that has always been the first harbinger of fall has begun its turn.
In a very few weeks that tree will be joined by the others and we will be in the riot of Hudson Valley colors that come with September and October.
The world has not blown itself off its axis today, for which I am grateful.
A devotee of “Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell Me!” I heard the current head of FEMA talk about how they prepare for asteroid strikes and other disasters we don’t generally think of…
And it also made me smile, as it often does, which is why I do my best not to miss it on Saturday mornings. It takes the realities of the news and makes light of them, which we often need to do.
Today, the NY Times had a long article about the complicated finances of Donald Trump and another about the complicated relationship that Hillary Clinton has with the Clinton Foundation. And if there have ever been two more complicated candidates for President, I would like to know. Can’t think of any… Though I am sure there may have been. It just maybe my knowledge of history is not as sharp as it should be.
Anti-Trump activists put up eight statues of Trump, naked. It was called: The Emperor Has No Balls. Which the statue didn’t and had a very small penis as well. The one in Central Park was taken down almost immediately with a very tongue in cheek statement from the Parks Department.
The last time I wrote, I included a picture of a five-year-old child, Omran Daqneesh, who has become the symbol of what has been happening in Aleppo. His brother died today. And I need to keep thinking of what I can do to help.
In the soft and safe place of my cottage, I am hurting at the hurt in the world. I am sure half the civilized world that saw the picture of Omran wanted to rescue him from the world in which he lived. I did.
And we can’t. Though I have to think about the work I can do to help the world in which Omran lives.
Tags:Aleppo, Claverack, Donald Trump, FEMA, Hillary Clinton, Hudson, Hudson Valley, IS, Mat Tombers, Mathew Tombers, New York, Obama, Omran Daqneesh, The Donald, The Emperor has no balls, Wait, Wait Wait Don't Tell Me!
Posted in 2016 Election, 9/11, Columbia County, European Refugee Crisis, Hillary Clinton, Hollywood, Hudson New York, IS, Life, Mat Tombers, Mathew Tombers, Media, Mideast, Political Commentary, Politics, Social Commentary, Syria, Television, Trump, Uncategorized | 1 Comment »
August 16, 2016
It has been a grey and gloomy sort of day here in Claverack; at one point the skies opened and torrents of rain slashed down. Mostly, I have curled into my cottage and put nose to grindstone on some volunteer work I am doing for the local community radio station, WGXC. It serves Columbia and Greene Counties and is, I have discovered, always unique, always surprising. It is the voice of this part of the Hudson Valley and I have gone in some months from not even knowing of it to realizing I can’t fathom not having its voice.
Over a hundred volunteers keep it afloat, programming by “civilians,” which cannot help being eclectic. From health and wellness to Broadway tunes to vinyl cuts with programmers from 13 years old to 83 years old, you have quite a mix.
So I am working to help them out and, like a good Catholic, realizing I wasn’t as good over the summer as I should have been, I am working extra hard now.
For fifteen years, I have always been a member of Amtrak Select Plus, which gives me access to their lounges. I am in serious jeopardy of losing it this year and am plotting how to make the points to keep it. And then I think, I am not traveling as much as I was. Should I even worry about this? I probably will find a way. The Acela Club in Penn Station is my “home away from home.”
So it is a Tuesday night. I have made myself a martini and Beatrice, my rapidly growing banana plant, and I are in the dining room, looking over the creek, a scene of grey mixed with incredible green. Classical music plays in the background, moving from the delightful to dirge like.
All this pitter patter about my life is a way of saying I have retreated from the news a bit. These are the dog days of August; the fall is coming upon us. It has been special here at the cottage this week and I have not wanted to disturb the week, the peace. I have gathered friends for get togethers. We have all avoided politics because we are worn out by the never ending campaign of 2016, which has been going on, it seems, since before I was born.
Rudy Giuliani, who was Mayor of New York, when 9/11 happened, said in a speech today that before Obama there were no attacks by terrorists on US soil. He has claimed it was a mistake; he MEANT to say NOT another until Obama. But it has come out badly for him. Excuse me, he lived through it, with me. I was there, listening to him tell us it was going to be devastating. How do you screw up so much, you, Mr. Giuliani, who lived through it with me?
For several minutes, I liked you. Now I don’t. Especially after today. The kind of speech making mistake today makes me wonder if you are holding the thread together, Rudy.
Trump is touting that if he loses the election, it will be because it is rigged. I fear that if he does lose, which I sincerely hope he does, there will be violence in the streets because that is what he is setting his followers up for. And they are not pleasant people, these Trump supporters. They seem nasty, angry [not without reason, which Hillary should speak to] and prone to violence.
I receive emails from my brother-in-law, who is definitely not a Democrat. They are a stultifying drone on how bad Obama is. He has not been all I hoped he’d be but no President ever is and I do believe a hundred years from now, history will be far kinder to him than my brother-in-law.
He was the first man elected President who was not “white.” And that has elicited furor from those who never thought that could happen. I hope he is a bridge to the future because soon, the US will no longer be “white.” It will be the mélange of immigrants of the 20th Century, the Hmong, the Vietnamese [who were vilified in places because they were so hard working], the Asians of all stripes who outstrip “Americans” who don’t want to work harder.
We are an immigrant nation. Hopefully, we always will be. I am a second generation American. I was lucky in my life, being born here, getting the education I did. I was lucky being born in America, the son of people who had been born here because their parents had come here.
Immigration is the story of the US.
Tags:Amtrak, Claverack, Columbia County, Donald Trump, Greene County, Hillary Clinton, Hudson, Mat Tombers, Mathew Tombers, Obama, Putin, Red Dot, Rudy Giuliani, The Donald, WGXC
Posted in 2016 Election, 9/11, Civil Rights, Claverack, Columbia County, Elections, Entertainment, Hillary Clinton, Hollywood, Hudson New York, Mat Tombers, Mathew Tombers, Media, Mideast, Obama, Social Commentary, Trump, Uncategorized | Leave a Comment »
August 12, 2016
The air is hot and heavy, damp and uncomfortable. I watch my creek from the comfort of the cottage; it is southern in its weather oppression and is the definition for languid summer days, of which I have had my share this week. Outside it is now grey and thunder rolls in the distance.
Finishing “The Hotel on Place Vendome,” I am now deeply into a history of the 304 year long reign of the Romanovs, from Michael to Nicholas II, who died with his family in front of a firing squad in 1918 in the Ipatiev House in Yektaringburg. The founder of his dynasty was called to the throne from the Ipatiev Monastery.
I napped this afternoon and have now a slew of errands to do come morning. My printer has died, a new one is needed. Groceries must be shopped for as friends come for dinner tomorrow night, the invitation offered in an effort to bring me out of the summer stupor.
Walking on Cape Cod last weekend, I did not wear the right shoes and have fierce blisters on my heels I am working to heal. Tuesday morning, I could barely walk and have been wearing flip flops all week.
Flip flops, books, a couple of good martinis, not a bad way to spend a summer week.
Trump claimed Obama and Hillary Clinton founded ISIS, now he says it was sarcasm but the reality is that Mr. Trump is on the verge of becoming a parody of himself. It makes me feel hopeful but it is 2016 and anything can yet happen.
The US claims the Head of IS in Afghanistan has been killed and the amount of territory controlled by them in Syria and Iraq is diminishing. Syria is still a hell hole and when I was complaining to myself about my blisters, I stopped myself: I could be in Syria. You have only very first world problems, Mathew.
Digital Media is being subsumed by old media. Companies like Disney and Turner and Hearst are putting hundreds of millions, even billions, into new media companies. As one declines and the other ascends, the ascendants will be owned by the decliners. Old media is putting its fortunes to work. Good moves.
Netflix, definitely a new media company, aired a documentary, “Making a Murderer.” One of the results was that today one of the accused has been ordered freed from prison, largely due to the incompetent actions of his defense attorney. Brendan Dasey has been ordered released in ninety days.
Media attention does bring action.
In a new and heartbreaking report, the CDC has released data about LGB students, indicating they are more likely to be bullied and more likely to consider and attempt suicide than their straight peers.
It is 2016 and still this happens. I was so lucky when I was their age. I wasn’t bullied in high school and I still marvel at that. I considered suicide but that had much more to do with my complicated family life than my sexuality.
A good article about the situation can be found here:
http://www.bustle.com/articles/178365-gay-high-schoolers-experience-rape-bullying-suicide-at-much-higher-rates-heartbreaking-cdc-report-finds
As I sit here, looking out at my creek, I celebrate how lucky I was, particularly in high school but also in college. This is a global problem, not just an American problem.
How lucky was I? I have gotten through life mostly not harassed by my sexuality. Only two times do I remember anything. Once early on in Minneapolis, a casual and not harsh moment, and once here in Hudson, when two teenagers called my ex-partner and I “fags.” Now, same sex couples walk down the street in Hudson and no one bothers them. Twice in a lifetime… How lucky am I?
It’s time to wind down and I want to introduce you to Beatrice, my banana plant. Beatrice came into my life when I briefly dated Raj, a psychotherapist of Indian extraction by way of Trinidad, who insisted I buy a banana plant. I did and now Beatrice has become huge and may one day well take over my home.
Meet Beatrice:
Tags:Cape Cod, CDC, Claverack, Digital media, Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton, Hotel on Place Vendome, Hudson, Ipatiev, IS, Isis, LGBT, Making a Murderer, Mat Tombers, Mathew Tombers, Netflix, New York, Obama, Romanovs, The Donald
Posted in 2016 Election, 9/11, Claverack, Columbia County, Entertainment, Gay, Gay Liberation, Hillary Clinton, Hollywood, Hudson New York, IS, Life, Literature, Mat Tombers, Mathew Tombers, Media, Mideast, Political, Political Commentary, Social Commentary, Syria, Syrian Refugee Crisis, Television, Trump, Uncategorized | Leave a Comment »
August 10, 2016
In my driveway there is a floodlight with a dusk until dawn timer. It was so gloomy this morning, “dawn” did not arrive until about 9:30. As bright and beautiful as the days were before, today has been singularly dark, a day when one wants to slip quietly into a corner and delve deep into a mystery.
I didn’t do that all day but some of the day, reading “The Hotel on Place Vendome,” a study of the Ritz Hotel before, during and after WWII. Good reading, not quite a mystery, not quite a page turner but a sound non-fiction account of the place that was at the center of Parisian life in those tumultuous years.
Of course, “Papa” Hemingway appears and his appearances further tatter the legend he built around himself even as his writing powers were beginning to fade, worn down by drinking and partying.
Reichsmarshall Hermann Goring was a morphine addict and spent at least part of the war soaking in the large bathtubs at the Ritz, attempting to wean himself off the drug.
Something like 80,000 children fathered by Germans were born in France during the war years.
It is a time we have not known. Somewhere today, I was reading an article online and the author was saying the last 70 years had been a dream. We had gone to peace and are now awaking into another era, not so peaceful. Yes, perhaps, but we did “duck and cover” as children and during the Cuban missile crisis my very young mind was convinced that we would all be evaporated.
It is not a peaceful world but never has it been very peaceful. I am peaceful this very moment, wrapped in a cloudy, gloomy day with verdant trees outside my windows, skies heavy with promises of rain, snug inside my cottage, the only sound the humming of the refrigerator.
The thunder of the campaign trail has been held at bay for the most part by my simply choosing not to delve much into it. Trump said something about “Second Amendment” folks should do something about Hillary and Democrats are charging that he was inciting violence against her. Of course he wasn’t, he said.
And Hillary has her blind spots, this week they’ve been showing up in relations between the Clinton Foundation and the State Department.
Though the report I was reading was released by a conservative group so I will add my grain of salt to what I was reading. Just as I put a bit of salt into my reading of the Democratic reaction to Trump’s latest. Don’t get me wrong, I won’t vote for the man. He’s crackers…
The number of ill considered things the man has said has slowly become numbing, no longer outraging me. It is just one unbelievable thing after another and, as far as I can tell, Trump’s not enjoying it much himself.
And he is embattled by his fellow Republicans. Susan Collins, Senator from Maine, has disavowed Trump. She’ll vote Libertarian or write in someone. She won’t support him or Hillary but go her own way. She is not alone. A dismaying number of Republicans are following her.
Whereas Clinton… I think she — and he — live for this kind of season, coming alive in amazing ways. Though Bill looks frail these days, a shadow of the man.
The Department of Justice released its report about the Police Department in Baltimore. “Scathing but not surprising” was one headline. In Ferguson, MO the wheels of justice are turning very slowly there, two years after Michael Brown died. Change is slow in coming, disheartening to many but the wheels are turning, I hope.
Like many, I have received two phone calls telling me the IRS is about to start a lawsuit against me. It’s a scam and it makes me crazy and people are being sucked in. One man paid the scammers $500,000 before he got wise. So ugly…
And while it is not beautiful outside, it is not ugly in my corner of the world.
Tags:Baltimore protests, Claverack, Clinton Foundation, Donald Trump, Feguson, Hemingway, Hermann Goring, Hillary Clinton, Hitler, Hudson, Hudson River, IRS Scam, Mat Tombers, Mathew Tombers, New York, Obama, Susan Collins, The Donald
Posted in 2016 Election, Claverack, Columbia County, Elections, Entertainment, Hillary Clinton, Hollywood, Hudson New York, Mat Tombers, Mathew Tombers, Media, Mideast, Obama, Political, Political Commentary, Social Commentary, Television, Trump, Uncategorized | 2 Comments »
August 5, 2016
It is a little after 8 pm and the sun is setting in the Hudson Valley. I have been a “prisoner” of my cottage for the last few hours as I have had my deck re-stained and I was not to go out and touch it until about now.
The trees over the creek are verdant green and the water in the creek is crystal clear. It has been a good day, in all sorts of ways. I woke up happy and I enjoy that kind of moment.
A couple of nights ago I was in distress, my lungs were congested and I was having a bit of trouble breathing. Stumbling through the medicine chest, I found and took a Mucinex and woke up the next morning with the congestion at bay, breathing again.
There is nothing like being able to breathe.
And it is hard to breathe in this current political season.
I have never in my adult life lived through such as season as this.
Anyone who reads me must understand how deeply disturbed I am that Trump is the Republican nominee for President. And the more he prances across the stage, the more concerned I am.
The New York Times did a video piece about the hatred they had witnessed while following Trump’s campaign. It was disturbing. You can view it here:
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/04/us/politics/donald-trump-supporters.html?emc=eta1&_r=0
I am at my dining room table and the sun has set and night has fallen. I am wrapped in the coziness of the cottage and am so grateful I am here.
Were I someplace else the craziness of our time might well make me mad but I can retreat for moments into the woods and believe, for a second, no harm could possibly come.
Like most of you I cannot believe the season in which we find ourselves.
This is not what I expected out of the 2016 political season. A friend of mine and I waged a friendly bet some months ago. He believed the Republican candidate would be Rubio; I went with Bush.
Both wrong. It’s Trump, who has solidified the anger of disenfranchised white Americans, who have reason to be angry. The world is passing them by…
But really? All this hate? It is a return to the realities of 19th and early 20th Century America where hatred moved from Germans, Italians, Poles, Irish, Jews…
A friend of mine who is Jewish remembers his grandmother in the early 20th Century hiding from mobs running through Lower Manhattan, screaming “Kill the Jews!”
We are on the verge of some of us screaming, “Kill the Muslims!”
Have we learned so little?
Tags:Claverack, Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton, Hudson, Jeb Bush, Marco Rubio, Mat Tombers, Mathew Tombers, Muslims, Putin, Russia, The Donald
Posted in 2016 Election, Civil Rights, Claverack, Columbia County, Education, Elections, Entertainment, Hillary Clinton, Hollywood, Income Inequality, IS, Mat Tombers, Mathew Tombers, Media, Mideast, Political, Political Commentary, Politics, Television, Trump, Uncategorized | Leave a Comment »
August 3, 2016
The Hudson River flows south as I move north, the west bank is a wall of green and great, grey billowy clouds hover over the river with the sun now cutting between them to bathe me in light. I am returning from a day in the city, a meeting with a client followed by a long lunch with my friend Nick. An afternoon appointment cancelled and so I changed to an earlier train.
I haven’t written much lately. Frankly, there has been so much to say about so many things I haven’t known where to begin or where to end. There was the Democratic Convention last week. I watched the finish of it the night I returned to the cottage after my Minnesota sojourn.
Hillary, who needed to be at her best, was at her best. The Democrats were shadowed then and are today, by the hacking of the DNC’s emails, which were released by Wikileaks to the press. Julian Assange, who is the head of Wikileaks, even while sequestered behind the walls of the Bolivian Embassy in London, timed it to do the most damage he could to Hillary, whom he reputedly despises.
Today, Amy Dacey, CEO of the DNC and two other officials resigned after the leaks demonstrated their bias to Clinton over Sanders.
Donna Brazile has replaced the much reviled Debbie Wassermann Schultz, former Chairperson. Brazile is well liked and had been suggested by the Sanders camp as a possible replacement for Wassermann Schultz.
And we are all waiting to find out if the Russians were the ones who hacked the DNC as digital evidence seems to suggest which, of course, has led people to ask if Putin is working to influence our elections?
According to one poll, 50% of Americans think he is. Would he try? I am convinced there is very little he wouldn’t try.
Trump out trumps himself everyday as far as I can tell. I am seated next to a friend of mine on the train who has confessed he has had panic attacks at the thought of a Trump Presidency. He is not much given to panic attacks that I recall.
And Trump seems to find a new way to disturb me every day but nothing he does seem to sway his die hard supporters.
Jacques Hamel, the 86 year old French priest, who had his throat slit while saying Mass, was buried today. He was killed by two teenage jihadists. In honor to him, thousands of Muslims attended Mass on Sunday and appeared today at his funeral.
The Rio Olympics open this Friday and I am largely unenthusiastic. The sports I am most interested in are aquatic and the reports of the condition of the water makes me cringe for the athletes who must compete. I am not sure the pool water is safe and the open waters seem to be filled with human refuse and garbage.
I thought I was alone until my friend, Nick, echoed my thoughts.
The Syrian government and the Rebel forces are accusing each other of gas attacks. It seems someone used gas in Syria. We have forgotten the lessons of other wars or perhaps whomever did it felt justified because Saddam Hussein used it effectively against some of his citizens before he lost his place.
A friend of mine asked me a couple of weeks ago how we could still call Turkey a democracy? Magical thinking…
As we move north up the Hudson, the heavy clouds have dispersed and the sun rules the river, silver light glinting off of silver water, reflecting against banks of green rising from river’s edge.
I tried to find something funny to end today’s post. I googled “funny thing that happened today” and “laughable thing that happened today.” It doesn’t seem anything “funny” or “laughable” happened today, according to Google’s current algorithms.
But I did find this: on August 2nd, 1990, Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait, the beginning of all that has not yet ended.
Tags:Amtrak, Amy Dacey, Bernie Sanders, Claverack, DNC Hacking, Donald Trump, Donna Brazile, Hillary Clinton, Hudson River, IS, Jacques Hamel, Julian Assange, Mat Tombers, New York, Obama, Putin, Rio Olympics, Russia, Saddam Hussein, Syria, The Donald, Wikileaks
Posted in 2016 Election, Claverack, Columbia County, Elections, Entertainment, Hillary Clinton, Hollywood, Hudson New York, Life, Literature, Mat Tombers, Mathew Tombers, Media, Mideast, Obama, Political, Political Commentary, Politics, Putin, Russia, Social Commentary, Syria, Trump, Uncategorized | Leave a Comment »
July 27, 2016
I am seated in the Red Carpet Club at the Minneapolis/St. Paul Lindberg Terminal. Lindberg, if you recall, was born in Michigan but spent his childhood in Little Falls, Minnesota. His father was a Minnesota Congressman and the state has adopted him as if he were a native son.
While not a member of the Red Carpet Club, I am a member of Amtrak’s Acela Club which gives me privileges at the Red Carpet Club.
Outside the wall of windows, the day is grey and threatening rain. My brother dropped me at the airport on his way to meetings in St. Paul and I have about an hour and a half before I board my flight back to New York.
It’s comfortable and quiet, just as this visit has been.
In the course of my time here, I have done the usual things of seeing my family and friends.
I went to the nursing home where my oldest friend, Sarah, has an aunt in the memory care unit. I went twice, bringing her flowers both times. She is 96, I think, though she identifies as being 102 or 103. Her sister, Eileen, and Eileen’s husband, John, have been gone a number of years and as I left Aunt MeMe, she asked me to say hello to them when I got back to New York. “If ignorance is bliss, ’tis folly to be wise,” from a poem by Thomas Grey seems apt here. I did not remind MeMe that they are gone. Let her live in the warmth of their presence inside her.
Yesterday, I went to the grave of my parents, unsure if I could find them. The great tree that marked my father’s grave and which my mother and I used as a marker when we visited is now long gone but I did find their graves, surprising and pleasing myself.
Standing there, I wished all of us could have done better; me as a child to their parents and they as parents to the child I was. We didn’t have an easy time of it.
When I was young, one of the greatest childhood treats I could have was the popcorn at the Pavilion at Lake Harriet, its beaches my summertime playground. So I went there, looking to see if the popcorn was as good as it had been, though my nieces warned me it was not the popcorn of old. There was no chance to make a decision; the popcorn machines were not working my last day in town.
Three was time with my brother, Joe, and his wife Deb, my other sister-in-law, Sally, who was Joe’s first wife, their two daughters, my nieces Kristin and Resa, a wine with Resa’s son, Emile. Kristin runs Clancy’s Meats in Linden Hills and is, I think, the most famous butcher in the Twin Cities. We had a couple of dinners, loud with laughter and a couple of breakfasts with Sally, full of warm chatter.
It was family time, for the most part. A good thing as family is centering as our wild world whirls around us.
As I wait in the comfort of the Red Carpet Club, CNN is on the background. Trump is speaking and the sound is so soft I cannot hear what he is saying. The banners in the lower third says he is all for getting along with Russia and that it’s “far fetched” that Russia is trying to help him.
Russians are believed to have hacked the DNC servers and then turned a treasure trove of nasty emails within the DNC over to Wikileaks who did what they do, leaked them to the press. The exposure demonstrated the contempt of some for the candidacy of Bernie Sanders. The most notable head to roll is Debbie Wasserman Schultz, who had been head of the DNC. Didn’t even get to open the convention she had planned.
The Democratic Convention got off to a rocky start but a burningly intense Bernie Sanders did much to pull the party together as did a rousing speech from Senator Cory Booker [best moment so far, to me] and a brilliant address by former Secretary of State, Madeleine Albright and several 9/11 survivors.
As my brother dropped me at the airport today, we discussed how much but how little time was left between now and the elections. I sighed and said: we’ll see more mud slung in this time than we have seen in our lives.
Tags:9/11, Charles Lindberg, Clancy's Meats, Debbie Wasseman Scultz, DNC, Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton, Lake Harriet Popcorn, Mat Tombers, Mathew Tombers, Obama, Red Carpet Club, Rosemarie Brown, Sally Tombers, Sarah Malone, Syria, The Donald, Wikileaks
Posted in 2016 Election, Education, Entertainment, Hillary Clinton, Mat Tombers, Mathew Tombers, Media, Political, Political Commentary, Politics, Putin, Russia, Social Commentary, Trump, Uncategorized | Leave a Comment »
July 22, 2016
It is early on a Friday evening in Bloomington, MN. The heat index is somewhere around 103 degrees. There is an excessive heat warning tonight and I am inside my brother’s lovely home, looking out at beautiful flowers and great green trees.
After my last posting, one of my readers, Bruce Thiesen, suggested I get to Minnesota and “reset.” And I think I have.
As I am sitting here I am watching the news regarding the terrible events that have happened in Munich. A few days ago it would have driven me to despair. Today, I grieve and yet I do not despair.
I feel refreshed and, suddenly, strangely, hopeful.
Last night, The Donald, painted a picture of a dark America, an America, quite frankly, that is far darker than I see, even in my darkest moments. We have a disturbingly large number of incidents of police acting irresponsibly and we have had a tragic reaction against police in Dallas and Baton Rouge.
And the reality is that crime is down in this country. We are safer than we have been in a long time, despite the terrible moments we have seen lately. And I, and you, need to remember that.
We have issues that need to be addressed. The aggrieved who are flocking to Trump have legitimate complaints. This complicated world has created issues we are just beginning to address. And I hope that we do address them.
But at this moment I reject the dark world that Trump espoused last night. As troubled as we are, it is better than he presents it.
What troubles me is that he presents himself as the strongman savior which is new to American politics but not new to the historical reality of politics. Let us remember Mussolini and Hitler.
This is a new moment in American politics. And it is concerning to me. And yet I am not as disturbed as I was a few days ago.
The German shooter may or may not have been Islamic or may or may not have been Rightist. We are all waiting to find out exactly what happened there.
Whatever happened, I will say a prayer for all of them, the wounded and the dead. I bow my head. But I will not bow my head and submit to the terror that is being sold to us.
And as horrible as it has been it has not been as horrible as it has been. We are a less violent country than we were despite the high profile incidents we have which are deplorable.
Sitting in my brother’s kitchen, I am, suddenly, thankfully, hopeful. Thank you, Bruce, for asking me to “reset.” I needed to…
Tags:Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton, Hudson, IS, Mat Tombers, Mathew Tombers, Munich Shootings, Putin, The Donald
Posted in 2016 Election, Entertainment, European Refugee Crisis, Hillary Clinton, Hollywood, IS, Mat Tombers, Mathew Tombers, Media, Obama, Political Commentary, Social Commentary, Television, Trump, Uncategorized | Leave a Comment »
Letter from the Vineyard 
Letter From Claverack, New York 08 23 2016 Generous souls…
August 24, 2016It is later in the evening than I normally write; I did a roundtrip to the city today. There were a couple of meetings and then I turned around and returned to the cottage. It is dark. I have turned on the floodlights so I can see the creek glitter with their light. The trees are silhouetted by the light, green and verdant. Nights like this are ones I love, with the floodlights giving an eerie beauty to what I see in the day.
Earlier today I had a long and good conversation with Sarah, who is my oldest friend. We have known each other since we were three and except for one brief period have been a close part of each other’s lives. She is one of the most loving and caring women I have known in my life and has always been that way.
In 7th grade, when Sister Jeron knocked me on the back of the head with a Gregorian Hymnal, humiliating me in front of our class, Sarah turned up that evening with one of her brothers and we went sledding down the hill by our house. She knew I was hurting and came to help take the hurt away. I remember that night as if it were yesterday.
Since I last wrote not much has changed in the world. Aleppo is still a horror show. Omran, the child in the photo, still haunts my dreams.
There are bombings hither and thither. A Turkish wedding was destroyed by a suicide bomber who may have been no more than fourteen. It was not the only bombing but it seems the most tragic with a child being used as a weapon.
Trump is attempting to moderate his tone and I hope it is too late. Hillary is caught in the crossfire of the Foundation and her emails, which probably will never go away. Even if she wins the Presidency, the Republicans will be chasing those emails and Benghazi into the next century.
The state of our politics this year is deplorable. While discouraged, I remain hopeful that some good will come from all of this. It must.
Out there in the wide world, North Korea has fired a missile from a submarine toward Japan. Provocative as ever, the chubby little dictator is testing the limits of what he can get away with.
Remember the Boko Haram? One of their leaders may have been badly wounded in a Nigerian airstrike. I hope so.
The Iraqis are intent on reclaiming Mosul. More than a million people will be displaced if they do it, according to estimates. More refugees in this horrific war that never ends…
The Brits voted for Brexit and Brexiting are a large number of corporations who are moving their money out of Britain. Not good for Britain who is going to have to do a lot of juggling with this Brexit thing…
It is late. I am distracted.
Long ago and far away, I was friends with the Elsen family. Don Elsen, patriarch of the clan, passed away today. He was 90, lived a good long life. I saw him a year ago. Unable to walk, he managed the world with a motorized wheel chair, mentally sharp as ever.
They were descendants of Germans and when I was with them, they could be screaming at each other and then burst into laughter and hug and hold each other. It was amazing. They were all full of love and Don was one of the most generous souls I have known in this life.
God rest. Keep safe. Be reunited in heaven with your beloved wife, Betty. Your son, Jeffrey, and your brothers who went before you.
May I have such a homecoming someday.
Tags:Aleppo, Benghazi, Boko Haram, Brexit, Claverack, Don Elsen, Donald Trump, Elsen, Hillary Clinton, Hudson, Iragis, Iraq, IS, Isis, Mat Tombers, Mathew Tombers, Mosul, Nigeria, Obama, Omran, Politics, Russia, Sarah Malone, Sister Jeron, Syria, The Donald
Posted in 2016 Election, 9/11, Afghanistan, Boko Haram, Claverack, Columbia County, Hillary Clinton, Hollywood, Homelessness, Hudson New York, IS, Mat Tombers, Mathew Tombers, Media, Obama, Political, Political Commentary, Social Commentary, Syria, Syrian Refugee Crisis, Taliban, Trump, Uncategorized | Leave a Comment »