We've Opened the Box

Climate Change Update:

Eating breakfast and preparing to start work, while the meteorologist on Bay News 9 informs me from my television that the heat index is currently 100 degrees.  It is 8:10 a.m.

She goes on to say it (the heat index) will be 110 this afternoon and people should stay inside in air-conditioning if possible.

Last night, I watched in horror as a river in Alaska raged, and a whole house collapsed off a bluff next to it, into the river.  My horror was not mainly due to the house falling into the river, it was due to the river itself:  it wasn't supposed to be surging and raging, bursting its seams with water.  That wasn't supposed to be rushing water at all.  It was melting glaciers.  That water was supposed to be frozen glaciers, but instead the glaciers are melting exponentially faster than previous scientific models and warnings of climate change predicted.  I've been shouting about climate change (then referred to as just "the greenhouse effect") since I was a kid in the 1970's.  Very, very few people believed the science and the few people who were sounding the alarm back then.  This is one of those few times when I get zero satisfaction from being able to say "I told you so."

I don't want to see what should be solid, frozen, climate-controlling glaciers rushing past as a raging river, taking houses off of bluffs on its way past.  I don't want to know that a monster hurricane or several will almost surely strike Florida this summer, as the ocean surrounding us is like a cauldron of boiling water.  I don't want to be advised by the meteorologist on television to stay inside the house, and bring water if you even have to drive to work, as you may overheat in the car.

What have we done?  With the images of that river in Alaska last night, I now get the feeling:  it's too late to turn back.  One of my favorite television shows of all time was/is LOST.  There was a set of mysterious numbers (4 8 15 16 23 42; yes, I still remember the numbers!) that figured centrally into the story and themes of LOST.  There was a character who was tormented by the numbers in his mind, and was in a mental institution.  Another character, Hurley (you may recognize the name, as I named my dog after him), went to the institution (where he had once also been a patient, and had met Lenny and heard him repeating those numbers over and over again) in an episode, to try to get answers about the numbers from Lenny, the tormented character.  As Hurley talked to Lenny, he told Lenny he'd come to believe that the numbers are cursed.  He told Lenny that he played them in the Lotto and strange things kept happening ever since.

Lenny got a look of horror on his face and became extremely agitated.  "You used those numbers?!  You shouldn't have done that.  You've opened the box!  It doesn't stop."

That's how I felt, watching what should be solid glaciers raging down a river as melted water:  we've opened the box.  We shouldn't have done that.  It doesn't stop.

Planet Claire

I'm in the throes of some kind of very intense, poignant nostalgia tonight.  It started when I somehow got thinking about the B-52's first album and how much I love it.

Fall.  1979.  It was my first semester of college.  I was in Vermont.  I was falling in love.  It was one of the happiest times of my life.  It was also when I first heard this album.  One of my friends in my dorm was playing it.  "WHAT is that?  What IS that?!!!"  I was instantly and forever obsessed, mesmerized, and completely captivated.  This whole album, in my opinion, is a masterpiece.

I must have listened to this a thousand times, back in my beautiful, magical green mountains of Vermont.  Back then, I, and others from my particular mileau, tribe, posse, pack and/or ragtag band of hippie punk new wave flower children were already shouting about climate change, which wasn't even called that yet (it was called "The Greenhouse Effect" at the time).  SHOUTING about it, warning about it, but no one was listening.  We didn't have social media.  Our voices weren't amplified.  No one believed us anyway.  Bunch of hippie flowerchild punks, they thought.

Tonight, in 2023, the same green mountains that I listened to this song in over and over and over again, in 1979 and beyond, are flooded.  Whole towns.  Because:  climate change.

People--most people, anyway--believe us now.  Everyone is starting to understand that human activities really do impact the environment, and while the environment is forgiving, there are limits.  And we've reached them.  And we've exceeded them.  And now Canada is on fire, California is on fire, my beloved Vermont is awash in flood waters, the coral reefs in the Keys are dying, the ocean surrounding Florida has hit unprecedented high temperatures.  Our world is on fire.  Our house is on fire.

This song that I love so much is exactly the same as it was in 1979, but the world, the world... it's changed.  We've changed it.  And if there is any hope of putting the genie back in the bottle, we have to behave in harmony with nature, now.

One of my very favorite songs, from the B-52's masterpiece first album, this is "Planet Claire".

It's a very good day for America

I wish the pundits would stop saying that this is a sad and/or sorrowful day for the country, as I think it is the exact opposite.  As I've posted about recently on this, the rule of law is precisely what makes the United States of America truly great.  It isn't the only thing yet it is one of the bedrock, foundational things that is actually quite special about us:  no person is beneath the law, or above the law, and that includes the POTUS.

So, if the POTUS is a treasonous, traitorous, law-breaking, constitution-flouting... I could go on, but you get my gist:  if the POTUS commits crimes, it would be a sad and sorrowful day for our country if he or she were to NOT get indicted and then, today, arraigned.

I personally am celebrating.  I am so relieved.  When the indictment first came down, I felt a sense of relief for my country that I haven't felt since before the day after election day, 2016.  On that day, I learned that 45 had won--45 had become 45.  On that day, I felt a sense of peril and terror that I've never, ever felt before for my country.  I clearly saw 45's potential to do all of what has since unfolded.  I clearly saw that our democracy, our constitutional republic, was in great peril.  With this indictment, and now arraignment (but I first felt the following with this indictment), I now feel RELIEF.  We made it.  We survived 45 (<--omg, I want a teeshirt that says that!).

We have a lot of pathology going on in our country.  I'm not saying we are in a state of perfect health as a country.  But I'm saying that the foundations, the bedrock, is still standing, and still strong.  I was not sure there, for a while.  And it was, and is, not guaranteed.  Had 45 won in 2020, for example, I do not believe we would have made it through another 4 years of 45.  I believe we would have descended all the way into fascism (we were well on our way, with babies in cages...  the damage that man did can never be undone, but we--our democracy, our constitution, our separation of powers, we, the people, VOTING, our free press, all of it--have SURVIVED.

So is today a "sad" and/or "sorrowful" day?  No, today is a beautiful and awesome triumph.  A healthy day for the rule of law.  Today is a happy day!

The state of our Rule of Law is strong: 45 has been indicated on federal charges!!!

BREAKING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

There is still hope for America:  repeat:  there IS still hope for our dear country, the United States of America!  DONALD J. TRUMP HAS BEEN INDICTED ON FEDERAL CHARGES!  This is a beautiful day for the rule of law.  No citizen in America is either beneath, or above, the law.  THAT is one of the main things, if not THE main thing, that truly makes America great.

#finally  #RuleOfLaw  #ItAintOverTilTheRuleOfLawSings

Happy Indictment Day!

Popping on while eating breakfast, sans glasses (so please excuse any typos!), just before getting dressed to leave for work.  I just have to shout, and YES:  gleefully:

HAPPY INDICTMENT DAY, AMERICA!

It's a beautiful day, a good day, for our country when we uphold and affirm what truly makes us great:  that, when we are doing it (our constitution) right, we are all equal under the law.  We all should have equal rights.  We all should have due process.  And no person--including the President of the United States--is above the law.

Finally, 45 is facing consequences for his law-breaking actions.  Today's indictment is just going to cover a tiny fraction of all the laws he has broken.  He has also violated our constitution, broken international laws governing Crimes Against Humanity, and committed treason.  Today doesn't make him, finally, have to face any consequences for all of those actions.  But today, finally, makes him have to face consequences for some of his actions.

45 has never had to face consequences before.  His followers love that he is a bully and he gets away with things.  They think it makes him macho and tough.  When they see that 45 is going to have to face consequences for his actions, it may also make them a tad quieter, at least for a while, and it may start to show them that their Emperor has no clothes.  They stuck with him and liked him even more, the more xenophobic and hateful and violence-inciting, and law-breaking, he was/is.  All of that only made them like him more.  But seeing him, FINALLY, facing consequences for any of it?  Seeing him maybe sent into a time out by the adults in the room?  They won't like that.  But just like children who act out and have tantrums and need to be shown LIMITS, it is the healthiest thing for them.  And for our country.

So I say again:

HAPPY INDICTMENT DAY!

Our founders never intended this.

I'm eating breakfast ahead of work, and they just showed photos on the news of some of those who were gunned down in the school in Nashville yesterday.  One of the photos really got to me.  It was of a little girl.  Her life is over now.  She was just trying to go to school.  She should have had the right to be safe in school.  Aren't Americans supposed to have the right to "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness?"  Since when does the liberty part eclipse the life part?  And doesn't liberty include the liberty to go out in public without the very real possibility of being gunned down?  Why should any citizen have the ability to own a weapon of mass murder, a military style assault rifle, capable of mowing down hundreds of people in moments?  Our founders never, ever foresaw or intended that when they penned our awesome constitution.  You will not find any such "right" in that document.  But shouldn't that little girl have had the right to go to school without being gunned down?  Shouldn't we all have the right to go to church, synagogue, mosque, the grocery store, the mall, outdoor events, dance clubs, the list goes on and on and on, without fear and reality of being gunned down?

The vast majority of the American people are for a federal assault weapons ban.  Yet since more of our elected representatives are apparently in the pocket of the NRA than actually want to uphold their oath to represent us, we do not have one, nor does one seem to be on the horizon.  So the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness is now infused with fear and grief, and drills for our nation's children in school on what to do if someone starts shooting.  What a perverse future, this present day is, of what our founders intended for us.

Red Tide

I'm so scared of Red Tide. And I ain't talking about what's washing up on some nearby beaches right now, here in Florida. I'm talking about Republicans or, as I call that party and most of the people who comprise it, repugs. I'm not into name calling but they deserve it. If the repug fits, get called it. They are repugnant, and not even worthy of the energy it would take to add in that last syllable, "nant", hence: repugs. Been calling them that for many years now and they just keep earning it anew. But I digress: they are taking over my state! And I'm scared, no joke.

When I moved to Florida 29 years ago, it was purple. There was a Democratic governor. I had to move here due to a physical challenge that I won't bore you with but the bottom line of which was/is that I have to live somewhere subtropical or tropical, period. That kind of narrows down one's options if one is an American and one loves one's home country and wants to stay in same. Couldn't go to California (where, as it happens, I was born, even though I'm a northeastern, mid-Atlantic girl to the core, and my parents were, too--they just happened to be in CA when they had me, but they moved back east when I was a tender little infant of 5 months old) because it's too arid for said sitch, and also the housing was way too expensive there for me at the time (and now). Hawaii seemed similarly impractical. But Florida? I could stay basically on the east coast, I could be near my beloved Atlantic, and it really doesn't get more humid than Florida, and I was all about the dew point at that time. So I set about the business of STUDYING everything I could (which was a LOT harder back then, pre-everyone-having-the-net: it was 1992, people, when I made the decision to move) about Florida. I went to the library (remember the library?). I wrote to Chambers of Commerce and had them send me stuff. I narrowed my city choices down to three, none of which were St. Pete, but, awesomely, the cosmos guided me here and, once I set foot in St. Pete (which was only ever supposed to be where I was staying on my reconnaissance mission in July of 1993, while I drove around to the three cities I was considering moving too--St. Pete was just supposed to be base camp for that, it wasn't on my radar at all), I fell in love instantly with this city. INSTANTLY.

I still looked at the other three contenders but, looking back, I think I actually knew right away: it was going to be St. Pete. And, luckily, St. Pete was pretty liberal, especially compared to some other areas of the state, so good: St. Pete. And I felt, as a girl from a solidly Blue state, and a solidly Blue set of parents, and a solidly and wildly, deeply Blue upbringing, comfortable with the fact that I was moving to the--gasp--south. Because, it's okay, I'm going to St. Pete. And look, the Governor is a Democrat. And... it's going to be okay. Well, that was before 2000. Which I can't even TALK about--2000, that is--to this day. I'm serious, no can do, still too traumatized, but if you know what I'm talking about simply by the 4 numerical digits "2000", then bless you and, if you know, you know. If you don't know, watch the first 15-ish minutes of "Fahrenheit 9/11" and call me in the morning. And, actually, if you have never watched Fahrenheit 9/11, you need to do so immediately, or right after you read the rest of this. I feel like that is when Florida started, no pun intended, going south on me.

Fast forward to now and we have a bunch of repugs MOVING HERE SPECIFICALLY DUE TO DESANTIS BEING GOVERNOR. It's a thing. A real, tangible thing. It started during the pandemic, with people who didn't want to wear masks or get vaccinated. And now we had a news story here the other day about a biiiiiiiig DeSantis rally, with lines of people waiting to see him, and one excited woman who was interviewed said, ecstatically, "I moved here for DeSantis! I moved here because I want to be in a free state!"

A free state? We're not free! We're not allowed to say "gay", let alone be anywhere on the LGBPTQIA+ spectrum. We're not allowed to have "climate change" in government documents, or teachers' unions, or to teach the actual history of the US of A. Girls and adult women aren't free to have agency over their own bodies and health care decisions. Companies, like cruise lines, aren't free to do what is best for their businesses by mandating vaccines to board their ships. I don't feel safe going to church, synagogue, the grocery store, events, etc., because people are walking around with semi-automatic weapons. This isn't a "free" state. You are not free to be yourself, to teach the truth, to form unions. DeSantis is also trying to take over the curricula of state colleges. So is this freedom or fascism?

This Red Tide is terrifying. I moved to a purple state which has, seemingly slowly at first, but now ever exponentially faster, become ruby, ruby red. When I sit in traffic on the way to and from work, or anywhere--bumper to bumper traffic, which *never* used to be the case, even just a few years ago here in St. Pete--I keep thinking of that woman on the news a few days ago: "I moved here for Governor DeSantis! I moved here to be in a free state!"

I guess one girl's "freedom" is another girl's "fascism". Potato, potato. This girl is scared. And now DeSantis is clearly running for President. This "freedom" could be coming soon, to every state of the union. Unless we stand up to it. Silence is not an option.