Posts Tagged ‘Hudson River’
May 9, 2016
For the first time in a week, the sun is out and the day feels spring like. Sunlight glitters off the Hudson River as the train I’m riding heads south to the city. I have a couple of meetings this afternoon and tomorrow and then will head back north after the last one is completed.
Today, I gave the final to my class. Once they’re graded and handed in, I am finished unless I am asked back in the fall.
It was genuinely hard for me to see my students go. I will honestly miss them, even the reluctant ones among them.
They are all interesting characters and I worry about them because most of them are graduating and their academic skills are less, for the most part, of what I would expect of students finishing their second year of college.
They range in age from twenty to forty. One is a mother who missed a couple of classes because she went to her own daughter’s graduation. Another is a vet, who is back after years of service, a man of thirty something who carries weight in his soul.
They follow Facebook and spurn Twitter. Instagram and Snapchat are their social media of choice.
No one remembers anything. They turn to their phones for the answers for anything and everything. As has been posited, if you can Google, why remember it?
Today was the first time they were not nose to nose with their phones. Their phones rarely leave their hands and if they have left it behind someplace, they are a shot out the door to retrieve it.
One of my tasks was to teach them to be better, smarter consumers of media. I challenged them to go a day without media. The one who came closest, went out to a farm and stayed there and even he couldn’t make it the full twenty-four hours.
The rest of them barely made it more than a few minutes. All have a better understanding of how pervasive contemporary media is.
Anxiety is apparent when they are separated from their phones, even for relatively short periods of time. When I threatened to remove a phone from one my students as she wouldn’t stop playing with it, I was greeted by genuine terror in her face.
Most of them suffer a higher degree of nomophobia [anxiety of being separated from your smartphone] than I had expected. The older they were, the less it was, the younger they were, the higher the degree. It was both fascinating and a little unsettling to observe.
Many of them write as if they were texting and some, to my great concern, have almost no skill in writing at all. I mean zip. And while they have more than moderate intelligence, they lack the skills to communicate their intelligence in writing. One of the smartest people in my class in native intelligence is incapable of getting his thoughts on paper. How can I not worry about him?
Most of them have an appalling lack of historical knowledge in general. They live in an ever constant present, skimming the waves of history, passing over it rather than through it. And what happened centuries ago is something which seems irrelevant to them. As I’ve mentioned, if they need to know about an event, they can Google it. [A disturbing tendency I have found in myself.]
Major device for connecting to the internet? The phone, of course. Most video viewing done? On the phone. Music consumption? On the phone. Everything is on the phone.
I am convinced they came away with a better understanding of how to approach and interpret media as they experience it and I am glad I have helped make them, please dear God, better consumers of media, less open to manipulation, more discerning, more interpretive because they really weren’t when they came into class.
I am afraid that is the case of many students today, at every level.
Tags:CGCC, Claverack, Columbia Greene Community College, Google, Hudson, Hudson River, Mat Tombers, Mathew Tombers, Media and Society, New York, nomophobia
Posted in Claverack, Columbia County, Columbia Greene Community College, Education, Greene County New York, Hudson New York, Literature, Magna Carta, Mat Tombers, Mathew Tombers, Media, Social Commentary, Uncategorized | Leave a Comment »
March 19, 2016
A brilliant sun is beginning to set over the Catskills as I ride north on the train. There is a great swath of sunlit river streaming straight toward the train as we crawl north.
There might be snow this weekend; a nor’easter may be storming our way though the forecast for Claverack doesn’t seem to indicate snow. It will be what it will be…
I am headed down to the city on Monday so I can sit in on the taping of Howard Bloom’s podcast, “Howard Bloom Saves The Universe.” [Available on iTunes.] Then a couple of meetings on Tuesday, a lunch on Wednesday and then I’ll race back to the country.
Easter Sunday is in front of me and I’m doing the brunch after Mass. I am beginning to think the General in me will need to come out. With moderation, of course…
While I have been doing my meetings in New York, the Belgian police have been conducting raids, which netted one of the prime suspects in last fall’s Paris attacks, Salah Abdesalam. It may be an intelligence coup. Other suspects also have been detained, some for helping him.
The EU has struck a deal with Turkey to return refugees to them while Greece, a bankrupt country, is on the verge of being a refugee prison. Would this be or not be a good time for an American to go to Greece? I love the country and would like to visit.
The Hudson is now steel grey and there is pink in the sunset. “Red sky at night, sailor’s delight.” Pink? Probably good…
Mitt Romney has said he is supporting Ted Cruz. Has it come to this?
Merrick Garland made some rounds on the Hill today while the Republicans say, with absolutism, they will not consider him. Ah, love gridlock… So now that Congress in in recess the fight is going to the home front.
It’s my understanding Georgia has passed a religious freedom bill, which is interpreted by many to be anti-gay.
The NFL as in the National Football League, has said that this might impact their plans to have the Superbowl in Georgia. Unintended consequences…
The markets have finally caught up with where they were at the end of last year but more to be thought of about where the markets are. Are things good again or not? The reports in the press seem divided.
Dark has descended on the trip. We are now headed toward Hudson. The evening progresses. When I am off the train, I’ll head to the Red Dot for a bite to eat and then home.
My bathroom is being repainted and from the pictures I’ve seen looks quite wonderful. Tomorrow I am meeting young Nick to pick up a new sink and faucet while at the same time picking out new appliances for the kitchen.
Now that I am living more at the cottage than anywhere else I would like it to be more me than it is now.
It is what we all want, our homes to represent ourselves.
Home is something I have thought about all my life, a looking for home. The cottage is the most I have ever felt at home and I am so grateful I have found that place.
The world will roar and the political battles will be fought and at the end, I will be at home, in the cottage, looking over the creek while the world plays itself out.
Tags:Amtrak, Belgian Police, Claverack, Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton, Howard Bloom, Howard Bloom Saves the Universe, Hudson, Hudson River, Iran, IS, Markets, Mat Tombers, Mathew Tombers, NFL, NFL and Georgia, Obama, Putin, Red Dot, Salah Abdesalam, Syria
Posted in 2016 Election, Claverack, Columbia County, Entertainment, European Refugee Crisis, Greene County New York, Hillary Clinton, Hollywood, Howard Bloom, Hudson New York, Mat Tombers, Mathew Tombers, Media, Mideast, Political Commentary, Politics, Putin, Social Commentary, Syrian Refugee Crisis, Television, Trump, Uncategorized | 2 Comments »
February 11, 2016
Amtrak Hudson River Gary and Angel Koven The Knot Bernie Sanders Donald Trump Hillary Clinton Einstein Theory of Relativity Oregon Standoff Ammon Bundy NATO Syria Russia Secretary Kerry Lavrov Saudi Arabia
As I start this, I am riding south on Amtrak, heading into the city to see my primary care physician, who is in the city, to bring him up to date on my medical adventures.
The Hudson is a steely grey, occasionally looking like burnished silver when the sun breaks through the heavy cloud cover. My friend, James Linkin, is sitting beside me, happy to see me up and walking.
The river is choppy, not surprising as the wind is up and biting, making it feel much colder than the temperature. I am tired as I often am these days though grateful to be up and out of bed and on the move.
My world feels altered in some way by my sojourn in the hospital. My friends often describe me as thoughtful and I am more so right now. The last few days, I have lived in quiet, without my usual jazz playing in the background. I’ve started to turn it on and then decided against it, preferring silence as my solace.
Tonight, I will have dinner with my friends Gary and Angel. They have been married now for four + years and I was at their wedding. Today their love for each other is as incandescent as it was the day they married. I recommended them for a shoot for the 20th anniversary of The Knot, a website devoted to marriage. One of the crew told me they were his favorite couple.
While I have been recovering, Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump won their respective races in New Hampshire. Headlines wonder whether Hillary’s campaign is about to implode and I wonder about the future of the country. The Trump juggernaut continues and that scares the hell out of me.
I’m sure I’m not the only one. The Daily News had scathing headlines about his victory saying zombies had come out to vote. One wonders…
Scientists are wondering less since they have found gravitational waves which fit into Einstein’s Theory of Relativity. Great scientific excitement and my friend, James, was particularly excited. He’s a fan of the physicist and shares his birthday with Einstein.
The Oregon Standoff is over. Bundy, Sr. has been arrested, following son Ammon to jail. And other standoff chapter is finished and this time, thankfully, without mass deaths.
NATO is sending warships into the Aegean to see if it can stem the flow of refugees, many being transported by human traffickers. The seas are rough, dozens are dying and the fighting rages back in Syria.
Saudi Arabia is said to have made a “final” decision to send troops to Syria. That is not going to uncomplicate things.
And while they might be sending troops, they’re not taking in their brethren, rather letting them suffer their fate on water than let them into their own lands.
Russia’s Foreign Minister, Lavrov, says this will result in an terminable, never ending war with the possibility of a new world war at the end of the game. Loverly.
The Saudis might make their move in concert with the Turks, who have been engaged in verbal hostilities with Russia ever since they downed a Russian jet before the New Year.
Secretary Kerry is desperately trying to get the Peace Talks going but it seems hard to get the sides into the same building not to mention the same room. Well, actually, they have no intention of being in the same room. If there is any dialogue, it will be through messengers shuttling between rooms. Could cost a lot of shoe leather but if there is progress, it would be worth it.
The Mideast already seems mired in that “interminable war.” 470,000 have died in Syria since the outbreak of protests against Assad five years ago. Millions of Syrians are in camps and desperate to get out to a better life, somewhere.
The day has faded. I am sitting in a deli in the city, sipping a cup of black coffee [I’m not allowed cream yet], looking out into the night that has fallen, the bright lights of cars heading down 7th Avenue, people scurrying from the cold.
All peaceful here. But for how long?
Tags:Ammon Bundy, Amtrak, Bernie Sanders, Donald Trump, Einstein, Gary and Angel Koven, Hillary Clinton, Hudson River, Kerry, Lavrov, NATO, Oregon Standoff, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Syria, The Knot, Theory of Relativity
Posted in 2016 Election, Airstrikes, Claverack, Columbia County, Entertainment, Mat Tombers, Mathew Tombers, Mideast, Political Commentary, Politics, Putin, Russia, Social Commentary, Syria, Syrian Refugee Crisis, Trump, Uncategorized | Leave a Comment »
November 30, 2015
Brian Gallagher. Joe Boardman. Amtrak. Hudson River. West Point. X-tra Mart murder. IS. COP21. Climate Change Conference. Producer’s Guild of America.“Tut” SpikeTV. Christ Church. Hope.
It’s a grey day, chill and gloomy. The train is crawling south toward the city. In front of me is Brian Gallagher, who is the sidekick of Joe Boardman, President of Amtrak, who is sitting across from him. Brian is by way of being a friend and I went up to say hello to Brian when I saw him, realized that Boardman was across from him and said hello to him too. He seems a very shy man, something Brian is not. Perhaps that’s why they seem to make a good team.
The Hudson River is smooth as a mirror, reflecting the muted colors on the banks above it.
With me I am carrying twenty pounds of textbooks from which I must choose the one I will use in the class I will be teaching at our local community college near the cottage. It’s challenging and I have to make the plunge by Friday.
That said, I’m excited about teaching the class.
Waking up around seven, I almost immediately plunged into emails and got lost in them. Before I drove to the train station, I organized all the Christmas presents I’ve purchased during the year in piles for the person for which they are intended. With Christmas carols playing, I found myself in a festive mood.
Which is the mood in which I intend to stay.
It was, as you know, a harsh weekend out there. Our local tragedy was that a woman, working at the X-tra Mart not far from my local grocery store, allegedly went into the restroom, gave birth to a baby boy, strangled him and disposed of his body in a trash bin outside the store and then returned to work.
She is currently in the hospital receiving a mental evaluation.
As is the man who shot dead three in Colorado Springs, Colorado.
We’re all a little crazy. I think it is part of the human condition but these folks are really crazy, in tragic ways.
Crazy zealous are the members of IS, who, I think, honestly believe they are doing what God wants of them. How you believe in such a crazy God is another question, but they do.
On a brighter note, COP21, the Climate Change Conference, has begun meetings in Paris. Out of this might come good news, of nations agreeing to work together to cool the planet, which was warmer last year than any other year in recorded history.
That’s important to remember that we’re talking about “recorded history.” The planet has gone through much colder and warmer times.
As I am a member of the Producer’s Guild of America, I get screening copies of movies and television shows to watch for judging purposes. One of them I got was “Tut,” the massive SpikeTV mini-series. As I was watching, it occurred to me that it is amazing how humans seemed to make a leap toward civilization about 10,000 years ago and haven’t looked back.
The time we have wandered the planet as beings you and I would recognize, has been an incredibly short amount of time.
As I am choosing to be joyous, nature has chosen to support me with a burst of sunshine. We have just sped past West Point and the sun is glittering off the river water.
Every Sunday that I go to Christ Church, I light a candle for myself, for a friend who is struggling with brain cancer and one for all the things I should be lighting a candle for, like world peace and the eradication of poverty.
I’m older now than I have ever been and will only continue down that path and as age piles upon me [with attendant wisdom, one hopes] I will continue to seek to be grateful for all the wonders of the world, those which I have experienced and the ones which lie ahead of me.
Tags:"Tut", Amtrak, Brian Gallagher, Climate Change Conference, COP21, Hope, Hudson River, Joe Boardman, Mat Tombers, Mathew Tombers, SpikeTV, West Point
Posted in Claverack, Columbia County, Hudson New York, Mat Tombers, Mathew Tombers, Media, Mideast, Political Commentary, Social Commentary, Uncategorized | Leave a Comment »
November 16, 2015
Hudson River. Hudson Valley. Paris attacks. French manhunt. IS. Raqqa. Alabama. Michigan. Minneapolis shooting. Jamar Clark. Ferguson. Beirut. Lebanese bombings.
It is Monday and the sun glistens off the Hudson River as I ride south, into the city for a meeting today and a lunch tomorrow and then back north to celebrate my birthday on Wednesday. Another year has passed, this one having moved past me more quickly than any other year.
My mother said often that time moves more quickly the older you get and it appears that she was right, in this instance.
It is a beautiful day in the Hudson Valley, a day so bright and cheerful it feels as if everything was right everywhere in the world.
Of course, it’s not. The world is still reeling from the Paris attacks. A manhunt is on throughout France and Belgium looking for a man believed to be one of the attackers who escaped in the chaos following the shootings and suicide bombings. Many have been arrested and taken into custody.
A Belgian, now believed to be in Syria, is said to be the mastermind. He is 27 years old.
A video was released, purportedly from IS, saying more Paris style attacks would be coming, specifically naming Washington, DC as a target. Its authenticity is questionable and it does not have the high production values usually associated with IS videos.
In retaliation, French jets, with help from the US, bombed Raqqa, the self-proclaimed capital of IS. There were at least twenty sorties.
Muslims across Europe are fearful of more backlash because of this and they are, unfortunately, right. The Governors of Alabama and Michigan have declared their states are closed to Syrian refugees.
At the same time, Obama is ruling out ground forces against IS. Hollande says he going to speak with both Obama and Putin in the next few days to discuss the situation.
On Thursday, bombs went off in Lebanon, killing 48. There was no great outcry or notice until Paris. Now people are noticing and vigils are being held for the Lebanese victims of IS, too.
France has declared itself at war and Hollande is asking for three months of emergency measures. The US Military has told service members they are not allowed to go to France on leave.
Obama has declared this is a war on civilization. It is.
I glide south, seagulls swooping over the river in graceful circles. A tanker inches southward. We are nearing the city and it becomes more industrial.
Minneapolis is my hometown. There was a shooting there last night. A young black man was shot and is, according to his family, brain dead. Witnesses say he was handcuffed and on the ground when he was shot. The police report a different story. Black Lives Matter Minneapolis has gathered in protest and is occupying the lobby of the Police Precinct in North Minneapolis where the shooting took place.
North Minneapolis has long had a reputation as a dangerous place. When I was in my twenties I worked there in an alternative high school. One of the students warned me against wearing the expensive watch I had as well as the ring I wore. People were planning to relieve me of them.
People are asking if Minneapolis is having its “Ferguson” moment. Hard to think of Minneapolis, my hometown, as a “Ferguson” kind of place.
But violence is everywhere and we are becoming so aware of it.
Tags:Beirut, Ferguson, French Manhunt, Hudson River, Hudson Valley, IS, Jamar Clark, Lebanese Bombings, Mat Tombers, Mathew Tombers, Minneapolis Shooting, Paris Attacks, Raqqa
Posted in Mathew Tombers, Paris Attacks, Social Commentary | Leave a Comment »
November 4, 2015
Hudson River. Howard Bloom Saves The Universe. Election Day. Tiffany Martin Hamilton. Hudson, New York. Christ Church. Kentucky Election. Houston. San Diego Shooter. LGBT. UC Merced. David Cameron. Sharm al Sheikh. Russian Plane Crashes. Justin Trudeau. Obamacare.
Once again, I am headed south on the train to the city, doing a round trip. I have a lunch in the city and then I am turning around and getting out of Dodge and won’t be back until Monday, when I come into town for a couple of days of meetings and Howard’s podcast taping. His podcast is “Howard Bloom Saves the Universe” and is available on iTunes and other podcasting sites. Check it out. He’s great!
The day is another beautiful one. Yesterday was a perfect fall day with the temperature reaching seventy degrees while cool enough at night to justify the use of the Franklin stove. Walking through the neighborhood, I savored the muted colors and the light on the pond into which my creek flows.
The river glistens a burnished copper from the colors of the season.
Yesterday was spent mostly glued to the computer screen, accomplishing digital tasks. My walk was a welcome interlude.
In a way the day felt like an interlude, despite being glued to the screen of my laptop. I didn’t notice much about the world and reveled mostly in the comfort of my cottage.
Yesterday was Election Day. In Hudson, our county’s “big city,” there was a hotly contested Mayoral race that appears the Democrat won. Absentee ballots are yet to be counted though those mostly tend toward Democrats. If it holds, Tiffany Martin Hamilton will be the first Democratic Mayor of Hudson in my memory.
She’s the daughter of the choir director at Christ Church, where I attend services.
Around the country, conservatives had a big night. They voted down an LGBT anti-discrimination effort in Houston and booted the Democrats out of the Kentucky Governor’s mansion.
Pundits this morning, as I was driving to the station, posited that Democrats were not well organized and Conservatives were. In all these places, voter turnout was low. I feel such frustration when people don’t vote.
As I continue, I am sitting in the Acela Lounge, watching CNN on the monitor. There is a live “incident” near the San Diego airport; a shooter is active and planes are being diverted. The shooter has a high-powered rifle and has come close to hitting police.
They are also talking about a nine year old African American boy in Chicago who has died in gun violence, shot multiple times. Mayor Rahm is saying there is a “special place” for the person who did this. I agree.
At UC Merced, there were five people stabbed before police killed the man wielding the knife.
David Cameron, the British Prime Minister, has delayed flights to and from Sharm el Sheikh while a British team makes a determination about security at the airport there. Cameron and the Brits are concerned that a bomb may have brought down the Russian plane recently, losing all aboard, including 25 children. American Intelligence is suggesting the same.
An affiliate of IS claims responsibility.
A Russian built cargo plane went down yesterday in the Sudan. Children were some of the victims there too.
Justin Trudeau has been sworn in a Prime Minister of Canada and half his cabinet is female. It is, after all, 2015, he points out.
Now that we are two years into Obamacare, a map of the uninsured shows that most of them are in the South and Southwest. Surpised?
And the death rate for middle aged white men who have not received a high school degree has skyrocketed. One article suggests they are dying of despair.
All this violence and despair are hard to imagine as I head back north, the sun just beginning to set in the west, the sun a bright slash across the river. It is peaceful; I am in the café car, sipping a wine and writing, heading north to my cottage, after a good lunch with friends, all soft and right in my world while knowing it is not soft and right in so many other places.
Tags:Christ Church, David Cameron, Election Day, Houston Election, Howard Bloom Saves the Universe, Hudson, Hudson River, Justin Trudeau, Kentucky Election, LGBT, Obamacare, Russian Plane Crash in Sudan, San Diego Shooter, Sharm al Sheikh, Tiffany Martin Hamilton, UC Merced
Posted in Mat Tombers, Mathew Tombers, Politics, Social Commentary | Leave a Comment »
November 2, 2015
Henry Hudson. Hudson River. Russian Jet Crash. Halloween. The Red Dot. The Ghost and Mrs. Muir. Amazon Prime. Benedict Cumberbatch. Hamlet. Ophelia. European Refugee Crisis. Sumte, Germany. Nazi. Turkey. Erdogan.
I am gliding south on the 8:45 out of Hudson, down to the city for a few meetings this week and then will head back Wednesday evening. The Hudson River is still and mirrors the muted colors of fall. A barge makes its way north to Albany. In certain stretches, it is possible to imagine that this was the way the river looked when Henry Hudson first sailed north.
It is so placid a scene that it is almost possible to detach from the battering of the news.
It has been two days since I have written; Saturday afternoon I was having a late, for me, brunch at the Red Dot before heading home to service any Trick or Treaters. Several people were sitting not far from me, chatting rather loudly and raucously about their summer exploits of jet skis and pool parties, dancing and dating.
At the moment, I was reading the New York Times and was feeling very aware of the various crises that are engulfing the planet. A Russian jet had crashed in the Sinai earlier that day. More had drowned in the Aegean and Germany is preparing to settle nearly a million refugees within its borders.
The conversation happening not far from me grated on me. Unreasonably, I wanted to walk over and say to them something like: you fools! Don’t you know serious things are happening?
I didn’t.
They were having a harmless conversation. I have had harmless conversations about silly things, too. And I am also aware of what is happening in the world. It bothered me at the moment because on the Saturday of Halloween it seemed no one was paying attention except me. I was having a cranky old man moment.
Last year, there had been a few Trick or Treaters. This year, there were none. As I waited, I watched “The Ghost and Mrs. Muir” from Amazon Prime. When I finished, I went off to bed to read a book, soon falling into the arms of Morpheus.
Early up on Sunday, I went off to Christ Church, slipping away after communion because I had a ticket for an HD version of Benedict Cumberbatch’s “Hamlet.” He and the production were superb. It is the first time I have witnessed a production that indicated that Ophelia was fragile even before the Prince of Denmark’s attentions.
At home, afterwards, I did some paperwork and read some more and am now heading down to the city.
The Russian airliner is much in the news; it apparently broke up in mid-air and it is being posited that some “external event” resulted in the loss.
In Germany, one small town of 102 individuals is being asked to take in 750 refugees. The Mayor of Sumte’s wife thought it was a joke when they were first notified. It has energized a youngish local Nazi who has a seat on the town’s council: it will be good for his brand of politics he thinks. This is a harbinger of the challenges facing Germany and those challenges also threaten Angela Merkel’s position as Chancellor.
Erdogan has won a big victory in Turkey, giving him the impetus to push forward once again with a plan for an executive presidency, not that it has been a de facto executive presidency since Erdogan took that office. He has been playing the role of both Prime Minister and President as he feels like it, a bit like the arrangement Putin had with Medvedev.
The day, which began gloriously, has turned grey as we have moved south. Mild temperatures are expected this week, a last gasp of Indian summer.
Loving to entertain, I am having two sets of people in for dinner this week.
We will talk, I’m sure, of silly things and serious matters and I will do my best to not be a cranky old man.
Tags:Amazon Prime, Benedict Cumberbatch, Erdogan, European Refugee Crisis, Germany, Halloween, Hamlet, Henry Hudson, Hudson River, Mat Tombers, Mathew Tombers, Nazi, Ophelia, Russian jet crash, Sinai, Sumte, The Ghost and Mrs. Muir, The Red Dot, Turkey
Posted in European Refugee Crisis, Mat Tombers, Mathew Tombers, Politics, Social Commentary | Leave a Comment »
September 28, 2015
Super Moon. Putin and Obama at the UN. Water flowing on Mars. An independent Catalonia? Taliban rising, again. Living on $17 a day. More on Volkswagen.
Last night, when the eclipse came at 10:47, I was already deeply in the arms of Morpheus. I had thought I might be able to make it but I was asleep before ten, drifting off, like many other days, reading a book.
Now I am on my way into New York City to have dinner with my godson, after a meeting this morning in Hudson. The day, which I thought was going to be sunny, has turned gray and mournful. The Hudson River looks like a sheet of beaten silver. Leaves are beginning to turn though I suspect it may not be a too colorful fall; the leaves that have turned haven’t much color and look as if they had just surrendered to winter, without a final burst of brilliance.
Both Putin and Obama spoke today at the UN. Even though he is meeting Putin today, Obama questioned Russian motives while leaving the door open for a constructive working relationship. That feels a little hard to imagine, a day after Russia, Syria, Iraq and Syria made an agreement to collaborate with each other on IS, without alerting or consulting the U.S.
But who knows what will happen behind closed doors with the two of them?
NASA now says that water flows intermittently on Mars. While it may be briny, it does flow at times which opens the doors wider for life on the Red Planet at some point in its past or present. Wouldn’t that be amazing? [And you’re correct, I am eagerly awaiting the Matt Damon starrer, “The Martian.”]
While I was wrapped in the arms of Morpheus, worshipping the god Somnus, the Taliban seized most of the city of Kunduz in Afghanistan, giving them a prize they have long desired. Afghan Security Forces and UN Personnel fled to safety as defenses collapsed.
It is the first time in fourteen years that the Taliban have managed to swarm into a city rather than attack with isolated bombings and individual acts.
Far to the west, in Spain, the Catalonian region held elections yesterday. A year ago, the region held a referendum on independence from Spain and those who wanted to leave outvoted those who wanted to stay. Madrid declared it unconstitutional and Catalonia remains part of Spain.
In yesterday’s elections, secessionists won a majority of seats but conventional wisdom seems to be thinking that Catalonia doesn’t really want independence but it wants a better deal from the Central government. This election helps strengthen their hand.
17 Florida legislators, mostly Democrats, are going to live on $17.00 a day for a week in a gesture to support a law to raise the minimum wage to $15.00 an hour. They figure that $17.00 is what a minimum wage worker has left over to live on when all the basics are paid.
We all know that Volkswagen had some really good code writers for the software they used in their diesel cars. It fooled testers into believing the cars weren’t emitting pollution when they were. Now the former head, who stepped down after the scandal broke, is now being investigated for fraud. Martin Winterkorn intimated he knew nothing but the German authorities aren’t so sure.
VW has lost a third of it market capitalization since the crisis exploded and the 78-year-old company is facing its biggest challenge.
More dull economic news from China resulted in more losses for the markets today. No denying it’s a global economy.
Nor can I deny that the sun has come out as I am passing the slowly rising new Tappan Zee Bridge. It burst through clouds and now glimmers off the silver water.
The train is well over an hour late and the conductors are being bombarded by questions as to when we’ll get to New York. One poor man is attempting to catch a plane out of Kennedy. He might JUST make it.
I will make my dinner with my godson and for that, I’m grateful.
Tags:"The Martian", Catalonia, China, Florida Legislators, Hudson River, Iran, Iraq, Kunduz, Legislators living on $17 a day, Mat Tombers, Mathew Tombers, Matt Damon, New York City, Obama, Putin, Russia, Spain, Supermoon, Syria, Taliban, Tappan Zee Bridge, Volkswagen, VW
Posted in Afghanistan, IS, Mat Tombers, Mathew Tombers, Social Commentary, Taliban | Leave a Comment »
September 16, 2015
As I start to write this, I am sitting in the café car [which has no service] on the 7:15 train out of New York Penn to Hudson. For the rest of the week, I’ll be upstate. On Thursday, I am driving down to Connecticut to visit with a friend/business colleague.
This morning, I had a lovely breakfast with my friend David McKillop, who had been EVP/GM of A+E. He has since left and they have set him up in a production deal. He splits his time between California and New York and this week he was in New York.
My admiration of David is tremendous. He has an interesting view on what is going on in media and we have great conversations about what’s going on. It’s always an intellectually stimulating conversation and he turned me on to some podcasts I will listen to as I am on my way to Connecticut.
It’s been an interesting few days. I have been a little out of sorts and I’m not sure why. Nothing bad is going on. I just feel a little cranky after many days of feeling quite wonderful. I’m hoping a few days upstate will restore my equanimity.
There is restlessness in the world. Europe is in the midst of an enormous refugee crisis. Even Germany, with its opening arms, has regulated its borders to try to maintain some order. Hungary has raised fences and barbed wire. The flood of people is overwhelming a system that is used to open borders. Their needs are tremendous. And the resources to address those needs are not tremendous.
Putin is placing tanks and troops in Syria to bolster up the Assad regime. They are placing tanks at the perimeters of an airport in Latakia. It looks like they are setting up a base there.
Syria grows more complicated by the moment. Half its population are refugees. These are not necessarily poor and uneducated people. They are often the middle classes that no longer feel safe. I listened to a report the other day on NPR; the Syrian refugee interviewed was a successful businessman. He had two homes but no longer felt it was safe for his daughter. They were fleeing so she might have a life that was not marred by barrel bombs.
It is an extraordinary situation; it has not been seen since the end of World War II.
In Egypt, the military killed eight Mexican tourists, mistaking them for a caravan of terrorists. They were on the way to camp in the western desert. There are, of course, conflicting reports on why this happened. President al-Sisi of Egypt has apologized. Another reason not to go see the pyramids this year.
Australia’s Prime Minister, Tony Abbott, has been toppled by his own party. The liberals in Australia, including my friend Lionel’s brother, are ecstatic.
There is a new Labour head in the UK who is very left leaning. He is not off to a good start. He seems to be alienating his own party and set some veterans off because he kept a “respectful silence” during the singing of “God Save the Queen.” He is a republican.
But they’re not rid of Queen Elizabeth II yet. He has also put in place a shadow government of a mostly boy’s club and that has been met with derision.
It’s dark now. I can no longer see the Hudson River; it is lost in the darkness. Lights gleam on the west side of the river. I’m tired and will wrap up now.
Tags:A+E, Amtrak, Assad, David McKillop, Hudson River, Jeremy Corbyn, Mat Tombers, Mathew Tombers, Putin, Queen Elizabeth II, refugee crisis, Syria, Tony Abbott
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August 26, 2015
Waking up shortly after 6:30, I was having my first cup of coffee at about 6:45 this morning, reading the New York Times, looking out the window at the pristine morning at the cottage. At the same time I was peacefully sipping my coffee, a man who called himself Bryce Williams, shot and killed a young reporter, Alison Parker, 24, and her cameraman, Adam Ward, 27. Bryce Williams was the name used by Vester Flanagan when he worked as an on-air reporter for WBDJ7, the same station Parker and Ward were working for at the time of their deaths.
Flanagan/Williams sent a 23 page fax “manifesto” to ABC News. He described himself as a “powder keg.” An African-American, he felt outraged by what he saw as discrimination at work and over the deaths of the nine people earlier this year at a church in Charleston.
The shootings occurred during a live interview with Vicki Gardner, Executive Director of the Smith Mountain Lake Regional Chamber of Commerce. She was talking about tourism in the region. She, too, was shot and is in stable condition.
This happened on live television, shocking viewers and control room crews.
Pursued by police, Flanagan crashed his car and when officers approached, discovered he had shot himself. He died later.
The train is moving north, the afternoon sun is glittering off the Hudson River, the world in front of me seems so peaceful, pure, simple and untarnished but two young people at the beginning of careers, are dead because a man, apparently unhinged by his anger, could take no more and killed people from his former workplace, knowing it would be live, on television.
Josh Earnest, the White House spokesperson, stated he hoped Congress would pass legislation that would have a “tangible impact on reducing gun violence in this country.”
Today I spent a fair amount of time in the Acela Club, Amtrak’s answer to United Airlines Red Carpet Club, where people hovered about the television monitor listening to the live reports on CNN about the shooting. There was a quality about them of individuals keeping vigil for the fallen.
As I move north, past the river and the luscious green of late summer, I, too, find myself feeling like I am keeping a kind of vigil, attempting to comprehend something that is not comprehensible, to me.
Tags:Acela Club, Adam Ward, Alison Parker, Bryce Williams, Hudson River, Josh Earnerst, Mat Tombers, Mathew Tombers, Smith Mountain Lake shooting, Vester Flanagan, Vicki Gardner, White House
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Letter from the Vineyard 
Letter From New York 05 09 2016 Thoughts on the last day of teaching…
May 9, 2016For the first time in a week, the sun is out and the day feels spring like. Sunlight glitters off the Hudson River as the train I’m riding heads south to the city. I have a couple of meetings this afternoon and tomorrow and then will head back north after the last one is completed.
Today, I gave the final to my class. Once they’re graded and handed in, I am finished unless I am asked back in the fall.
It was genuinely hard for me to see my students go. I will honestly miss them, even the reluctant ones among them.
They are all interesting characters and I worry about them because most of them are graduating and their academic skills are less, for the most part, of what I would expect of students finishing their second year of college.
They range in age from twenty to forty. One is a mother who missed a couple of classes because she went to her own daughter’s graduation. Another is a vet, who is back after years of service, a man of thirty something who carries weight in his soul.
They follow Facebook and spurn Twitter. Instagram and Snapchat are their social media of choice.
No one remembers anything. They turn to their phones for the answers for anything and everything. As has been posited, if you can Google, why remember it?
Today was the first time they were not nose to nose with their phones. Their phones rarely leave their hands and if they have left it behind someplace, they are a shot out the door to retrieve it.
One of my tasks was to teach them to be better, smarter consumers of media. I challenged them to go a day without media. The one who came closest, went out to a farm and stayed there and even he couldn’t make it the full twenty-four hours.
The rest of them barely made it more than a few minutes. All have a better understanding of how pervasive contemporary media is.
Anxiety is apparent when they are separated from their phones, even for relatively short periods of time. When I threatened to remove a phone from one my students as she wouldn’t stop playing with it, I was greeted by genuine terror in her face.
Most of them suffer a higher degree of nomophobia [anxiety of being separated from your smartphone] than I had expected. The older they were, the less it was, the younger they were, the higher the degree. It was both fascinating and a little unsettling to observe.
Many of them write as if they were texting and some, to my great concern, have almost no skill in writing at all. I mean zip. And while they have more than moderate intelligence, they lack the skills to communicate their intelligence in writing. One of the smartest people in my class in native intelligence is incapable of getting his thoughts on paper. How can I not worry about him?
Most of them have an appalling lack of historical knowledge in general. They live in an ever constant present, skimming the waves of history, passing over it rather than through it. And what happened centuries ago is something which seems irrelevant to them. As I’ve mentioned, if they need to know about an event, they can Google it. [A disturbing tendency I have found in myself.]
Major device for connecting to the internet? The phone, of course. Most video viewing done? On the phone. Music consumption? On the phone. Everything is on the phone.
I am convinced they came away with a better understanding of how to approach and interpret media as they experience it and I am glad I have helped make them, please dear God, better consumers of media, less open to manipulation, more discerning, more interpretive because they really weren’t when they came into class.
I am afraid that is the case of many students today, at every level.
Tags:CGCC, Claverack, Columbia Greene Community College, Google, Hudson, Hudson River, Mat Tombers, Mathew Tombers, Media and Society, New York, nomophobia
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