Where did 2018 go?

I don't know about you, but for me 2018's been a blur.

Talk about time flying when you are having fun.  I'd say it flies even faster when you are NOT having fun, or at least you WILL it to fly faster and just get it over with.

That's what 2018 has largely been to me.  Something to get over with, to get through, to survive if you will.

I think that's been the attitude of slightly more than half this nation's people too.  Who wants to stay in this time, with all of it's highlighting of human failing?  Let's please close our eyes and skip ahead, skip ahead.  Maybe when we open them again we'll be in a better place.

2019, is that you?

Heroes and Friends

... or, when the brightest lights go out how do you find your way?

You would have to be a recluse bordering on hermitage, or the reddest of red-state Trumpists to feel good about the news of the Country and the World these days.  But we somehow get by without walking fully-clothed into the Pacific or swan-diving in our cars off Angeles Crest.

This on-the-brink-of-depair state hits those of a certain age the hardest, since we also are feeling unmoored from 'our time' as well.  We are being slowly disconnected from the people and things that strengthened our view of our country and our world; the sources of courage and hope during all the years of almost unrelentingly sad news blaring at us from our TVs and from our newspapers, and now from our multi-various 'screens'.

Even in our darkest times we had Heroes, who would speak words of encouragement, or lead by example; sometimes sacrificing their careers or even lives for the right thing.

We also had cheerleaders and those who simply made us remember the good things still surrounding us, through their words and actions in print, in films, on screen, or through disembodied voices over the radio.

These Heroes and familiar Friends kept us grounded and upbeat, through every damn thing the worst of our kind could dredge up and throw at us. (And that was an awful lot).

MAGA-Maniacal

 Of all the incomprehensibilities spewing out of the red-state Trumpian geyser,  MAGA, or 'Make American Great Again' is the first and foremost.  It Trumps 'Lock Her Up', and 'Build that Wall', or even 'Fake News'.

MAGA implies that America WAS great at one time, but currently is NOT.  And that Trump, or the populist but thoughtless movement of which he is the leader and symbol, can make it great AGAIN.

This is ironic and doesn't make sense, given that the self-same supporters of MAGA are the first to cry 'America is the Greatest country on Earth', and claim that millions of immigrants want to come and partake of that greatness.

So what is it? Are we Great or Not Great?

Of course, I'm kidding.  I know the MAGA movement is really saying that Americans of primarily caucasian lineage living 'traditional' lifestyles and wrapped in a familiar religion are what makes America great, and anything or anybody displaying different values would undermine that greatness.

But that attitude, aside from being innately racist, grossly inhumane, and irreligious, is a bad plan for the future.

Sure, short term change can be (and probably will be) painful and disruptive. But without change there is no way to find better ways to live together as a human society. Without change we will never solve age-old problems that may only be solved given new perspectives.

In other words, societies need fresh blood, and new ideas.  Change in the form of immigration has brought just that to America over the centuries, and it can do it again.  In fact, the greatness of our country depends on it.

Build a wall and all we will do is stagnate behind it.

So,

Maintain America's Greatness by Allowing immigration. MAGA, indeed.

House Rich

... or why its getting weirder in America ...

Almost 17 years ago, my wife and I moved our family into a larger house in a new neighborhood.  We needed the space desperately to avoid the appearance of hoarding.  Although if I'd known the commercial appeal that 'real life' hoarding stories would one day generate, maybe we'd of stayed and gotten rich by being the pack rats we (seemingly) are.

But let me not digress.  This piece is about that larger house and the neighborhood around it.  A nice place, don't you know.

When we moved in, it was a place full of people mixing across a large swath of the economy, from the LA wealthy to the LA poor(-ish), and all between.  There were long-time resident ethno-cultural groups here cheek by jowl with the usual SoCal majority mix of whites/Hispanics.  Streets were lined with mom-and-pop one-off shops and independent restaurants among the car body shops and senior living complexes. An interesting place to live. Not splashy, but comfy.

During the big housing bubble prices for homes in the area became expensive out of proportion to any real value, but hey, the banks were giving away jumbo loans at 0 down.  In much of the outlying areas of LA, the Great Home Ownership Rush was On.  In my neighborhood it was there, but more subdued since the people who already lived there weren't in the mood to sell, and not much new was being built.  Besides, if we sold, where would we move?  We liked it where we were.

Then the bubble burst and everywhere you looked house prices were dropping like those Turkey's in WKRP's Thanksgiving Giveaway.  They dropped where I live too, but not as much.

And now, 8 years after that bubble burst, with other areas still recovering, LA housing prices have been rising with a bullet, nowhere more so than in my neighborhood.  They now stand at triple (or more) the price they fetched 17 years ago, beyond even the crazy highs of the bubble.  This extreme rise in value has led some locals to finally sell-up, grab the profit, and move to cheaper climes and buy a retirement mansion.  Good for them, I would say, only the people who are buying up and moving in are not the same kinds of people as those leaving, so the personality of the neighborhood is changing.

And how could it not? People who can afford to pay 1 million and up for homes that were half that 10 years ago are not like me - and probably not like you. They are Rich.  Not billionaires, but certainly millionaires, multiply so.  Either that, or they are far more skilled in managing their money than the average American, sadly including me.

I don't know exactly where they are coming from; another part of LA, refugees from even higher prices in the San Francisco Bay Area, or hillbillies who struck Texas Tea, Black Gold, Oil that is!

Wherever they are coming from they are changing the place.  Everywhere you look long-time businesses are closing and trendy, hip places are opening up, in chase of the money they just know is there.  Sometimes they close too, and another trendy spot takes its place. It's like America has acquired ADHD, or at least a shortening attention span.

Ok, I'll admit, I can't directly tie the rapid increase in house prices (and apartment rents) and their new richey owners to the change in businesses, but hey its a pattern that LA has seen elsewhere.  Like  that nice place I used to live with my family in the too-small house I sold to to get into the bigger house.  That older place is even trendier and hipper now.

People who held on there and here, and have not sold into this booming market, really like where they live and don't want to leave. But these places are changing around them into something increasingly unrecognizable and weird.

Whether we, the residents of those places where a rising tide of incredible (and to me inscrutable) affluence is leaving us as beachcomber's on a strange shore, can adapt and love the new normal, is a question without any clear answer.   I plan to stay until every other restaurant is trendy-casual and all burgers are gourmet, and/or until Home Owners Associations rear their intrusive, ugly heads. Even then I'll probably stay, since, like I said, it's a nice place.

Loss and Love

or, why darkness never completely extinguishes light

 It's a common belief that bad things happen to good people.  Or that the good die young. But that's not really accurate.

These things are thought because when good people have misfortune or die, others take more notice.  Because they were good.  The passing of good through the world leaves a wake.

The wife of a social media friend of mine recently passed away after a tenacious battle with pancreatic cancer.  If you don't  know about that kind of cancer consider yourself lucky.  It's a King Kong Bitch of a disease.

Because my friend is a friend through the world wide web and I've never actually met him, I also never met his wife.  I only knew her through his occasional mentions.  But I could tell much from those scraps.

I could tell she was loved, and loving.  I could tell she was smart. And I could tell she shared much of my friend's passions in life.

What I couldn't tell and didn't know was that she was sick, and sick with such a terrible form of cancer.

Just yesterday my friend told his friends at our communal forum that she had passed away.  He gave the news in the context of participation in our shared passion of motorcycle racing.  You see, his wife was the best of us in the game of predicting who might win, and the finishing order of the runners-up.  In fact, she was a whiz at it.

In his telling, he mentioned also what she'd meant to him; how she had supported him in his own racing and moto-interests for decades.  How she was strong; a fighter.

He mentioned the hole her passing had created and how he and his family were trying to pull it together and get on with life.

That's a hard ask, even if the grief may be tinged (as it often is in cases of prolonged cancer) with some relief at the ending of a loved one's ordeal.  But it's an ask that is answerable, because although good people may leave a gap when they die, their cumulative good effects on others over the years remain undiminished; the benefits reaped from knowing then still vital.

So, a good person's progress through life was stopped by a merciless cancer.  But her memory and her goodness will carry on with my friend and his family.  In this temporary darkness they now experience the light she bequeathed them will shine and lead the way out.

That's the enduring promise of Love. That it will not be diminished by Loss.  And why where there is Love there is never true darkness.

Rest in Peace

Tee'd Off

or, how I learned to fear golf as much as the Bomb ...

Back in the good old days of normally devious and corrupt politics, the cast of characters were just as chock full 'o nuts as our current crop, they were just a bit smoother and subtler.  Most of the time.

Richard Nixon famously wanted his 'enemies' to think he was a Madman.  He figured if they believed he was unstable they wouldn't push him (or America) too far, and they might fear him enough to let him (and American interests) push farther.

Now, we have a President who may actually be crazy.  There's no public face of stability with a covert Nixonian 'leak' pointing to secret madness, there is just plain nuttiness while publicly speaking or tweeting.  It would be comforting to think this was as much a ploy as Nixon's, but sadly the chance is nil.

Trump has a fine form of natural looniness that would be charming if he could turn it off when things got serious. It was in fact kind of entertaining when he was just reality show realtor magnate Trump. For many of his core base, it was what made them fall in love with candidate Trump.  It's not so entertaining now, since its so clear that his inherent crazy is an always-on never off state of being.

Faced with serious issues that could literally cost millions of lives, our President's behavior isn't a benefit.  Even Nixon would probably agree with that.

So now we get to stand by and watch our President tweet threats from the golf course. That's truly Mad ...

The Last Time I Saw Paris

... it was underwater

OK, only partly, but the flooding was severe.  And, OK, I wasn't actually there, I saw it on TV.  But it was very wet.

Point is, the weather has been crazy these past few (or dozen) years.  Surely you've noticed right where you live, even if you don't watch the Weather Channel like a Class 5 was barreling down on you.

But, back to Paris.  That city is on the radar this week 'cause that is where the Climate Accords were forged.  Those same Accords that Dear Old President Trump just axed.

Now, if you are an environment loving kind of guy, like me, who once wished he could be a combination of Charles Darwin and Jacques Yves Cousteau (with a little Lloyd Bridges as Mike Nelson thrown in), this dissing by Trump of the World's best effort (since the Kyoto Protocol was ignored by another Republican President) really sucks.

If you think of money before most else, then you might think what the President did is a good thing.  After all, cleaning up current and preventing future messes takes time and money, and is not nearly as much fun (or as profitable) as making those messes in the first place.

Or maybe you are someone who believes that God made everything we see for the sole purpose of supporting mankind, and we can do whatever we damn well please with it.  And, anyway (you might say), if it gets bad enough God will rescue us.  No need to lift a finger ourselves.

If you are the latter type, I guess you never had a Mother who taught you 'God helps those who help themselves'.

Whatever you may find as a reason for supporting the lack of support Trump gave the Paris Accords, I must tell you that you are being unreasonable.  Trump's told you it was a 'bad deal' for the USA.  Apparently we had commitments (as one of the World's top two creators of greenhouse gases) that were tougher than some other countries.

Well, forgetting for a moment that the US negotiators thought those were reasonable at the time, there is nothing in the Accords to force a country to abide by its commitments - the country can always change the terms if the circumstances change.  Trump could have kept us in the Accord and negotiated a different commitment, but, no, he had to throw this particular baby out with the bathwater.

Don't believe we could have stayed in and changed the terms?  OK then, check this:  although Trump stated the USA was quitting the agreement, we can't legally pull out until nearly 2020.  During that time Trump and his government will do absolutely nothing to comply with any of the terms - because he can, and could do even if still in the deal.

So, pulling out was just making a political point of keeping a campaign promise, and maybe also of thumbing his nose at the Europeans who were mean to him during his recent trip.

But here's the deal, and its where those Paris floods come back in again.

The crazy weather doesn't wait.  Every day we pump out the crap into the air and water, the more extreme and unpredictable the weather will become.  And, it takes time for anything we do to make a positive change.  So, if we were to cut emissions tomorrow, the improvements might not be seen for 5, 10, or even 20 years.  It's not like we can wait until the last minute and then save the World.  Basically, the 'Last Minute' is nearly here, and we are about to miss it.

Those Paris Accords were a visible sign that all countries on Earth were in this together and would work together.  It was a handshake. A Gentleman's Agreement.

And our President just cut out its heart.