Farewell to arms

News blues…

Oh, oh! Trump has touched a nerve. Could Jeffrey Goldberg’s article in The Atlantic, “Trump: Americans Who Died in War Are ‘Losers’ and ‘Suckers’”  do in the prez?
Has the Trumpster met his match in the US military?

When President Donald Trump canceled a visit to the Aisne-Marne American Cemetery near Paris in 2018, he blamed rain for the last-minute decision, saying that “the helicopter couldn’t fly” and that the Secret Service wouldn’t drive him there. Neither claim was true.
Trump rejected the idea of the visit because he feared his hair would become disheveled in the rain, and because he did not believe it important to honor American war dead, according to four people with firsthand knowledge of the discussion that day. In a conversation with senior staff members on the morning of the scheduled visit, Trump said, “Why should I go to that cemetery? It’s filled with losers.” In a separate conversation on the same trip, Trump referred to the more than 1,800 marines who lost their lives at Belleau Wood as “suckers” for getting killed.

“A Retired General CRUSHES Donald Trump For Calling Fallen Soldiers ‘Losers’”  (4:50 mins)

VoteVets:  Gold Stars  (0:57 mins)
MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow shares author Mary Trump’s story of Donald Trump’s view of the military.  (5.24 mins)

This week’s batch of political ads hammer Trump’s disloyalty to the US military and its personnel.
Not someone who likes to listen to or make predictions, nevertheless I predict The Donald will come to regret his disregard and his disrespect of The Troops.
To Americans, Trump’s attitude to women, Ukraine, impeachment, the presidency, the coronavirus, nationalists, inciting violence, can be flicked off as trivial.
His attitude to the US military? Nope. It is a giant strategic error that will sink his re-election efforts. There’s no coming back from this. 

 
Meidas Touch: Vote Out JQNI  (o;29 min)
Draft Dodger Don: Trump Hates Our Troops  (0:54 mins) 

RVAT: Republican Voter: Voting for Biden to Save American Democracy  (6:02 mins)

*** 

Despite Trump’s woeful showing in polls, the American presidential election process offers plenty of quirks. It’s not, for example, a direct democracy where majority votes determine the winner. It’s a republic bolstered by an Electoral College designed to “manage” the process and, to my mind, ensure direct democracy, aka the “popular vote” can be (has been) thwarted. Here’s why and how Joe Biden could face an uphill battle in the US election.

Healthy futures, anyone?

Dear SA  is a “legally recognized public participation process that allows citizens to co-form policy at all levels of government.” Most recently, the Department of the Environment, Forestry and Fisheries invited members of South Africa’s public to amend the Environment Conservation Act Plastic Carrier Bags and Plastic Flat Bags Regulations.
Sign before the invitation closes on September 7 (so far only 5863 signatures) 
Background: 'War on plastic' could strand oil industry's £300bn investment. Major oil firms plan to grow plastic supply to counter impact of shift against fossil fuels . 

© ‘Energy companies must no more
be allowed to flood the oceans
with polyethylene than
they should be allowed
to pump the atmosphere
full of greenhouse gases.’
Photograph: Dan Clark/USFWS/AP 

An editorial in the Guardian news responds: 

Reports of plans by the oil industry to expand the supply of virgin plastics by a quarter over five years, while putting pressure on countries such as Kenya to lift restrictions on their use, show how urgently this needs to change. Plastics are not a byproduct of the fossil fuel industry. They are a product of it. The expansion of plastics manufacturing, on which companies including Saudi Aramco and Royal Dutch Shell plan to spend about $400bn (£300bn), is part of the industry’s coordinated response to the reduced demand for fuel brought about by the shift to renewable energy and electric vehicles.

Reduce, reuse and recycle has long been anti-waste activists’ slogan, and it still serves a purpose. Encouraging people to stop consuming stuff they don’t need, to pass unwanted objects on, and recycle rubbish rather than send it to landfill are all worthwhile goals. The trouble is that it isn’t working. Currently, about 8m tonnes of plastic end up in the ocean every year, with the latest research suggesting that this quantity could triple in 20 years. A new approach is required that retains a strong emphasis on personal and collective responsibility (which help keep beaches and parks clean), while sharply increasing pressure on politicians and businesses.

That Guardian photo shared above? I’m not sure where it was taken but I can attest to it being no exaggeration, and not a one-off.
In 2000, I traveled to Midway Island, north of Hawaii, with the Oceanic Society, to aid research on spinner dolphins.
Midway is a breeding ground for Laysan albatross and our group visited the atoll at the end of the breeding season after the healthy birds had departed. Only sick, dying, and dead birds remained. Too many of the dead birds echoed that photo: starved to death from ingesting too many BIC lighters, bits of colored plastic, small plastic containers, etc. 

A healthy Laysan albatross 

It’s estimated about five tons of this sort of plastic is fed to chicks each year at Midway Atoll alone. The volume of plastic in a chick's stomachs causes death by dehydration as well as by sharp plastics fatally puncturing portions of the digestive tract.

***

As a ceramic sculptor, I focus my art on alerting viewers about the dire shape of our planet due to heedless misuse of its bountiful resources.

(c) Jabula-arts
Click to enlarge. 

This piece is from my “Heedlessness” series – so named after a line from Rumi’s poetry: “Heedlessness is a pillar that supports our world….”   
This piece maps the Great Pacific garbage patch, and the pelagic critters dependent upon healthy oceans. The life raft – embedded in the headdress – is a common motif in my work.

 

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

Delving into a whole new arena of South African culture: weapons, arms, ammunition.
Keeping in mind America’s pro-gun, shoot-first-ask-questions-later culture, I warily drove to the local gun shop carrying three of my mother’s elderly weapons: a pellet gun, a single-barrel shotgun, and a Berretta pistol/handgun, along with her gun licenses. My goal was to learn how guns are managed here and either to sell or consign the gun shop to sell the weapons, or hand them over to be neutralized.
At the gun shop, the gun expert called the local police station to confirm the licenses had been issued “after the new law went into effect.” They had. But the police also had a record of my mother owning a 38 revolver.
I called my mother from the store and learned that that revolver had been stolen seven years ago. She couldn’t remember if she’d reported the theft.
Problem # 1: According to the police, she had not reported the theft – and must do so. Daunting thought: besides more bureaucracy, my frail 87-year-old mother – as the owner of the weapons – must go in person to the police station… which means wearing a masks and waiting outside in the coronavirus-socially-distanced line, in the hot winter sun.
Apparently, not reporting the theft will create a paper trail nightmare for her relatives (me!) after she passes.
Problem # 2: Word on the street states never surrender weapons to the police as “the police” are likely to sell the guns to “bad guys” to perpetrate bad deeds.
Urban legend? Shaggy dog story?
Who knows?
If the paperwork associated with surrendering weapons is anything to judge by, Problem # 2 never happens. Nor is it something within my control. My job is to take my mother and her guns to the police station, stand in line, do the paperwork, hand over the guns, and return my mother to her home. 

Nevertheless, the frequency with which I’ve heard this warning, however, makes me wonder about the underlying truth.
In the end, it’s yet another reason to avoid the arcane world of guns and gun-ownership.

Follow up to... Landfills and Dumps

Back in April 2015 (Saturday, 25 April, to be exact) I posted a series of pix of in-progress shame totems. Specifically, I wrote:

The Shame Totem

...As you may know, a totem is, often, a tall, vertical carved or painted family or clan representation or emblem with identifiable common/meaningful objects. A ‘shame totem’ is geared to elicit public embarrassment, usually for unpaid debts although Alaska Native carver Mike Webber of Cordova erected one to shame Exxon Mobil on the anniversary of the Exxon Valdez spill….
(More... read that post.)  

Here it is, almost exactly 6 months later and these totems are glazed, fired, and ready for public eyes.
Back then, (link to that post to see) I displayed the greenware version of one totem. Here it is glazed and fired. This is front and side view. Click on the image to enlarge.

Title: Heedlessness Series 1. ( (c) Susan Galleymore.

This piece is one of three that will  be entered into an exhibit with the theme of Climate Change. Here is how I describe the piece (24" high x 15" wide x 15" deep):

Heedlessness Series, 1

Riffing from a line of Rumi's poetry -- "Heedlessness is a pillar that sustains our world, my friend" -- I researched the location and dispensation of our planet's largest landfills. 

These dot the planet and countries compete for title of World’s Largest Landfill; the current favorite is South Korea’s Sudokwon (a marvel of geometric engineering 30 km west of Seoul). 

Mexico City’s Bordo Poniente held the title until it closed in June 2012. In 34 years of operation more than 70m tons of waste were dumped here (56 feet deep in some places) and 1.5 million tons of methane were released per year.

In the U.S., the biggest landfills are in Shawnee, Kansas, followed by Puente Hills, near Los Angeles, and Apex, near Las Vegas.

This sculpture sits on a pedestal inscribed with the "Heedlessness..." line of Rumi's poetry. Two figures strain to hold up the pillar upon which the planet rests; a snake, a recurring motif in my work, coils around the pillar.

On the upper (northern?) hemisphere of the blue planet, "X" marks the spot on the continents that host the world’s largest landfills. The Pacific Garbage Patch (spelled out) raises awareness about the state of that ocean ...and all of our planet's polluted oceans, seas, and rivers.

On the lower (southern?) hemisphere, I present landfill names at different angles to signify the lack of coordination in addressing the reals requirement of a planet increasingly smothered by waste.

The mid-section (equator?) is a round-a-bout of endangered oceanic creatures: turtles, whales, salmon, puffins, penguins, albatross, and dolphins.

The sculpture’s head, the "thinking" core of our world, erupts out of turbulent waves that almost cover the woman. She wears a necklace of semi-precious beads around her neck with a fish skeleton pendant. She is crowned with a garbage barge with waste piled so high it spills over the sides. The barge, however, is also a lifeboat offering shelter to the segments of humanity that must migrate from their traditional homes due to the effects of climate change.

The barge/lifeboat is named "Lollipop" (as in the “Good Ship Lollipop”).

Size: 24” (h) x 15” (w) x 15” (deep)

The other pieces are:

Title: Heedlessness Series 2. ( (c) Susan Galleymore.

Heedlessness Series, 2

Another take on the line of poetry by Rumi -- -- "Heedlessness is a pillar that sustains our world, my friend" – this sculpture  addresses an aspect of Woman/Women, in the age of climate change.

Here, the human body, like the planet, is under siege from the pressure of living the Western lifestyle. This includes pressure to consume beyond need to excessive "getting and spending” (‘we lay waste our powers” according to Wordsworth), and to keep up with the latest “in” thing.

Women must both turn to one another for sustenance and support and compete with one another for goods, services, and resources.
Meanwhile, the obvious -- the body/planet connection -- is overlooked, over-ruled, over-indulged, etched on, sketched on, and kvetched over.

Size: 27” (h) x 10” (w) x 15” (deep)

 Heedlessness Series, 3

Title: Heedlessness Series 3. ( (c) Susan Galleymore.

Heedlessness Series, 3 
My third take on the line from Rumi’s poetry -- "Heedlessness is a pillar that sustains our world, my friend" – considers migrants and migration in the age of climate change.
Rising sea levels will affect millions of people who live in coastal areas and will have to scramble for higher ground to survive, and millions more who will be displaced by the scramble.
This sculpture depicts a dominant figure trapped in water that rises to her thighs, and rising up and out of water.
Her right arm and shoulder are formed by three snakes, a white feather, and a small key. Her snakelike arm grips a walking stick, an object that guides, comforts, and offers security. The other snakes that curl and wind around the woman’s torso may stimulate a viewer’s ambivalent relationship to these wild creatures and to nature.
The white feather signifies the artist’s regard for the written word… and that words are key to the artist’s well-being.
The Woman’s left arm and shoulder are formed by a ladder upon which she supports a fleeing migrant…or an ambitious person. Thus, the ladder can represent a means of escape and social and political ambition (often the downfall to clear thinking about climate change). The ladder rests on, or rises from, the Hand of Fatima, an emblem of magical thinking as well as an object of beauty and safety (warding off the evil eye).
The migrant that clambers up the Woman’s thigh is, perhaps, someone who has not heeded the mounting evidence of climate change or is someone who lacks the resources to ensure her own safety.
The Woman’s headdress – a lifeboat surfing through waves – suggests the surfer can ignore inherent danger …or harness it as a temporary means of excitement and pleasure.
The many faces in this piece suggest that, for now, populations  may  continue to rely on magical thinking and 'business as usual' to deny an inevitable future.
Size: 40” (h) x 12” (w) x 11” (deep)