Jitters

Some days it hits hard: what another four years of Trumpism would do to the US and to people across the world.
Prejudice. Corruption. Chaos. Violence. Unjust justice. Lack of leadership. Strong arm tactics. Increasing poverty of the majority juxtaposed with exorbitant wealth of a tiny minority .
Not to be dismissive, but … I’ve little faith that human beings in leadership positions have the desire or a clue as to how to pull out of our planet’s nosedive into tragedy. Nor do I have faith that We, the People, can work constructively together to change our trajectory.
(Sorry to begin your week on a downer.... Care to prove me wrong? I welcome it.)

News blues…

Quickie news bites:

A UN summit on biodiversity, scheduled to be held in New York next month, will be told by conservationists and biologists there is now clear evidence of a strong link between environmental destruction and the increased emergence of deadly new diseases such as Covid-19.
Rampant deforestation, uncontrolled expansion of farming and the building of mines in remote regions – as well as the exploitation of wild animals as sources of food, traditional medicines and exotic pets – are creating a “perfect storm” for the spillover of diseases from wildlife to people, delegates will be told.
Almost a third of all emerging diseases have originated through the process of land use change, it is claimed. As a result, five or six new epidemics a year could soon affect Earth’s population.
“There are now a whole raft of activities – illegal logging, clearing and mining – with associated international trades in bushmeat and exotic pets that have created this crisis,” said Stuart Pimm, professor of conservation at Duke University. “In the case of Covid-19, it has cost the world trillions of dollars and already killed almost a million people, so clearly urgent action is needed.”  

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Papua New Guinea’s battle against a climbing rate of Covid-19 infections is being hampered by the most basic of shortages – access to clean water –public health experts have warned.
Case numbers have jumped from just 11 cases two months ago to 424 on Friday, with four deaths. And efforts to contain escalating case numbers throughout the archipelago, and to prevent outbreaks across the Pacific region, are being hamstrung because thousands cannot access clean water for hand-washing and cleaning.
“The latest statistics indicate that 55% of people in the Pacific have access to basic drinking water … the lowest in the world,” said David Hebblethwaite, leader on water security and governance at the Pacific Community. “In terms of access to sanitation, we have crept just below sub-Saharan Africa … this is clearly a health issue related to hygiene and handwashing.” After an initial outbreak in the capita, Port Moresby – with cases centred on healthcare workers at the country’s largest hospital – infections have now been detected across PNG … The actual rate of infection is likely many times higher than the official figure: fewer than 16,000 tests have been conducted across the entire country since the pandemic began. 

Healthy futures, anyone?

Flying hundreds of feet above the ground in a motorized paraglider, George Steinmetz has photographed the world's most remote environments from the sky. Over the past four decades, Steinmetz has captured pictures from the mega dunes of the Namibian desert to rice paddies in Yunnan Province, southwest China.
Each location was unique, but the Steinmetz noticed a common theme - humans were changing the planet.
He could see how even the most isolated places had been damaged and their wildlife decimated as they were exploited for resources…
In 1997, Steinmetz purchased his first motorized paraglider and set off to take pictures of the Sahara Desert. After that, Steinmetz… spent some 15 years flying over every extreme desert in the world… [and] to survey and photograph forests, oceans, cities and farmland…

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A view into “How anti-Trump Republicans are working to defeat him.” (5:11 mins)
The Lincoln Project: 

School  (0:25 mins)
Don  (1:25)
Trump Talks Trump  (0:55 min)
Meidas Touch: Tick Tock, Trump  (0:55 min)
End The Misery (The Misery Index)  (0:55 min)

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

Rain. And forecasts for rain off and on over the next week. Who knows whether the weather will play out according to the weatherperson, but spring is on the way – and welcome.
Cheers me up.

Belonging

Amy Klobuchar tweet.

Briefly a 2020 presidential candidate, Amy Klobuchar’s tweet refers to the White House as the house belonging to all Americans, and not as a Trump branding opportunity. 

The humorous tweet (meme?) also references the all-American lawn as contested territory, the eye of the storm between public and private spheres: 

The state of a homeowner’s lawn is important in relation to their status within the community and to the status of the community at large. Lawns connect neighbors and neighborhoods; they’re viewed as an indicator of socio-economic character, which translates into property- and resale values. Lawns are indicative of success; they are a physical manifestation of the American Dream of home ownership. To have a well maintained lawn is a sign to others that you have the time and/or the money to support this attraction. It signifies that you care about belonging and want others to see that you are like them. A properly maintained lawn tells others you are a good neighbor. 

News blues…

MSNBC interview with Steve Schmidt, The Lincoln Project co-founder. (3:35 mins)

Sixty-five days and counting before the US presidential election. From 14,000 miles away, I see large swathes of Americans anxious at the possibility of The Donald remaining in office for another four years. It is a terrifying thought. Surely it is not possible? Alas, documentary film-maker Michael Moore warns,

Donald Trump appears to have such momentum in some battleground states that liberals risk a repeat of 2016 when so many wrote off Trump only to see him grab the White House. Moore said, “Sorry to have to provide the reality check again.”
Moore, one of few political observers to predict Trump’s victory over Hillary Clinton in 2016, said that “enthusiasm for Trump is off the charts” in key areas compared with the Democratic party nominee, Joe Biden.
“Are you ready for a Trump victory? Are you mentally prepared to be outsmarted by Trump again? Do you find comfort in your certainty that there is no way Trump can win? Are you content with the trust you’ve placed in the DNC [Democratic National Committee] to pull this off?”

Polls show The Donald’s approval in the 40s – including “the bump” from the RNC. How is it possible that 40 percent of Americans approve of the man’s performance as president? It’s mind boggling. 

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The role of political ads in this election…

Really American: Keep Tucker Dunks Trump on TV  (1:00 min)
Put Don and Eric on TV  (0.26 min)
Meidas Touch: Bye Eric: A Total Phony  (1:15 mins)
Trump Failed: The Results Speak For Themselves  (0:25 min)
VoteVets – The First  (1:24 mins)

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Daily Maverick webinar, The Inside Track: Don Magashule: The Godfather of the Free State.  Hosted by Pauli van Wyk with Scorpio investigative journalist Pieter-Louis Myburgh.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

While driving, I often listen to RSG Radio (Afrikaans, pronounced “Er”, “Es”, “Ge-uh” – guttural “g”). It’s soothing – probably because I don’t always understand what being said but grasp enough to get the big picture.
Radio hosts discuss gardening and present news items, and their musical offerings are delightfully behind the times. Today, I listened to elevator music version of Rolling Stones, “Satisfaction,” and a male vocalist doing The Shirelles, “Will you still love me tomorrow?”
It helps that, due to Lockdown Level 2, all my car trips are local. This means I’m tuned into RSG for stints not longer than 10 to 15 minutes. Just enough time to keep my brain translating the Afrikaans with non-demanding background music.

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Successful visit with real estate agent.After dipping a toe into the arcane world of buying and selling residential property real estate in South Africa, I found commonalities with the agent. A brief off-topic conversation about which high school I attended – Girls High – and he asked about girls I might have known then. Indeed, I knew several of the names he mentioned.
A feature of life as an adult immigrant is knowing no one who shared one's primary or high school years. In California, I never meet anyone I knew as a child or teenager. In small town South Africa, I frequently run into childhood acquaintances.
An unfamiliar feeling – belonging – suffuses me when I recognize and talk to someone I knew decades ago. It feels good.

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Monkeys from the neighborhood troop uprooted more of the snap pea seedlings I’d recently transplanted. They also uprooted another set of pole beans that I’d tried to disguise under a flight of outdoor steps. It’s maddening. News from a small town in rural Japan universalized my frustration:

…local farmers have been dealing with hordes of hungry monkeys eating up potatoes, onions, eggplants and cucumbers.…
Three older women who call themselves the “Monkey Busters” …use air guns to scare monkeys away from the crops.
The women are so dedicated to the cause they often show up to a monkey sighting still in their aprons so not a moment of monkey-scaring is wasted.
Monkey Busters don’t kill their targets, [but] fire warning shots followed up with firecrackers and other loud noises.
…Monkey Busters leader Masako Ishimura said, “We were really troubled by the monkeys’ damage to the crops, so the three of us cooperated to get rid of the monkeys. I will continue to do my best for the region with the feeling of not losing.” 

I’ll not use guns or fireworks on local monkeys, but I’m Sympatico with Japanese farmers.
Maybe I should try wearing an apron?

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Weather report signals cold and wet next few days, but that can’t hide the signs of spring all over: plum, trees, Pride of India trees, many trees and plants are blossoming….
I’m so ready for spring.
Best news? It’s raining….

Settling in

After a week of anxious waiting for Internet re-connection, I’m settling back into my blogging routine.
Scanning the news presents a disconcerting view: Covid-19 has not, as Donald Trump promised,  “disappeared, like a miracle." Humans’ attention toward the pandemic, however, is disappearing. Odd, as infection rates continue to increase. Peru – 622,000 confirmed infections - has replaced South Africa – 620,250 confirmed cases - as the fifth most affected/infected country.
Unsure whether to celebrate South Africa’s status or mourn Peru’s.

News blues…

India’s rate of infection climbs precipitously, just trailing Brazil: 3,467,000 compared to Brazil’s 3,805,000.

India has set a new national record of daily coronavirus infections, reporting more than 77,000 cases in 24 hours, just shy of the global one-day record tally held by America. 
India’s health ministry reported 77, 266 new cases on Friday, taking its total cases to 3.39 million, data from the federal health ministry showed. India also recorded more than 1,000 new deaths taking total fatalities, to 61,529, the fourth highest total in the world, behind the US, Brazil and Mexico.
The country has recorded the highest single-day caseload in the world every day since 7 August. The largest ever one day rise is 78,427, reported by the US on 25 July.

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The Lincoln Project: Chayna  (1:00 min)
Trump Hires the Best  (1:00 min)
Ready  (1:00 min)
VoteVets - Postmaster General Louis DeJoy Must Resign Or Be Fired  (0:55 min)

Healthy futures, anyone?

Here’s an idea for concerned world leaders to emulate. Costa Rica, forward thinking in conservation and sustainability, rewards farmers who carry out sustainable forestry and environmental protection through its PES - payments for ecosystem services program. .

Costa Ricans have powered a mass conservation movement across the tiny Central American country. While most of the world is only just waking up to the importance of trees in battling the climate emergency, Costa Rica is years ahead.
"It is remarkable… In the 1970s and 1980s Costa Rica had one of the highest deforestation rates in Latin America, but it managed to turn that around in a relatively short period of time." 
Costa Rica is the first tropical country to have stopped -  and subsequently reversed - deforestation. …
In the 1940s, 75% of Costa Rica was cloaked in lush rainforests. Then the loggers arrived … and cleared the land to grow crops and raise livestock. It is thought that between a half and a third of forest cover had been destroyed by 1987.
… In1996, [the government] made it illegal to chop down forest without approval from authorities and the following year it introduced PES. Today almost 60% of the land is once again forest. Cloud forests envelop the country's mountain peaks, thick rainforest lines the beaches of the south and dry forest sweeps the northeast. This rich landscape is home to around half a million plant and animal species.

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The bad news? The MV Wakashio oil tanker that struck a coral reef last month in Mauritius was scuttled on Monday. Since then...

At least 40 dolphins have died mysteriously in an area of Mauritius affected by an oil spill from a Japanese boat… …
[A spokesperson] from the Mauritius fisheries ministry said 38 carcasses had washed up on the beaches so far. Autopsy results on 25 dolphins that washed ashore on Wednesday and Thursday were expected in the coming days.
Veterinarians have examined only two of the dolphins, which bore signs of injury but no trace of hydrocarbons in their bodies, according to preliminary autopsy results. The two autopsies were conducted by the government-run Albion Fisheries Research Centre.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

Move views of this Hoopoe
scroll down the page.

Signs of spring: yesterday, an African Hoopoe searched the lawn for food. Assume the sparse feathers on her head and neck indicate fraternization with horny male African Hoopoes. (During mating, male birds in the throes of passion, and in an effort to stay aboard, pluck the female bird’s neck feathers.) 

Compare this sleek, unruffled male African Hoopoe. (Courtesy of Birds of Eden  ) 

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The week in wildlife pictures as a reminder to celebrate what’s out there.

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Another red letter day in my quest to settle my mother into a caring care center: visit with the real estate agent recommended by my mother’s lawyer. Since I’ve lived in California for decades and was never invited to participate in selling her former property, it will be, as we Americans say, “a learning experience.”

Altered realities

A cartoon message
 for Trump supporters. 
Click to enlarge.

The plus side of no Internet connection for a week?
Not tuning in to the Republican National Convention.

News blues…

California fire map and tracker 

California fires live updates 

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Interview with Mary Trump: 'Repulsed And Heartbroken' After Uncle's RNC Speech | MSNBC (7:20 mins)

New York Times opinion writer at large, Charline Warzel writes about Trump’s convention,

One of the biggest lessons I’ve learned covering the daily information wars of the Trump era is that a meaningful percentage of Americans live in an alternate reality powered by a completely separate universe of news and information.
Some are armed with their own completely fabricated facts about the world while others, as the journalist Joshua Green wrote in this section in 2017, rearrange our shared facts “to compose an entirely different narrative.” There is little consensus on the top story of the day or the major threats facing the country. You will have noticed this if you’ve ever watched a congressional hearing and flipped between CNN or MSNBC and Fox News. The video feed is the same but the interpretation of events is radically different.
Personally, I’ve never seen a clearer demonstration of the Two Universes phenomenon than this week’s Republican National Convention.
For three nights, in a shameless display of loyalty to President Trump, the party has conjured up what my colleague Frank Bruni described as an “upside-down vision” of the world. Theirs is a universe in which the coronavirus pandemic is largely in the rear view (on Aug. 25, 1,136 Americans died from the virus) and where, according to Representative Matt Gaetz, radical Democrats threaten to “disarm you, empty the prisons, lock you in your home and invite MS-13 to live next door.” A universe where the existential dangers of climate change pale in comparison to those of cancel culture — even as the West is ravaged by blackouts and wildfires and the Gulf Coast is slammed by a devastating hurricane.

Hear, hear, Charlie!

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Catching up on political ads
The Lincoln Project:
Decency  (0:55 mins)
Protect  (0:55 mins)
Concoctor  (3:15 mins)
Goodyear  (0:25 mins) 

Don Winslow Films: The Real Kellyanne Conway (All’s I can say is, WOW! Kellyanne Conway’s daughter speaks out.)   (1:25 mins)
Really American: Polluter in Chief  (1:37mins)
Longtime Republican and Trump Voter: Voting for a Democrat For The First Time  (5:55 mins) (Editorial comment: sharing this guy’s view despite not agreeing with his pick of all his presidential candidates. He, however, is showing common sense for this year’s election.)
Second Trump DHS Official Comes Out For Biden  (2:15 mins)

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

First full day re-connected to the Internet so, between forays into the garden to dissuade monkeys from further “exploration” of seedlings, and sharing time with my mother over cups of Rooibos tea, I plan to catch up on what’s happenin’ in the world….