Safeway

  3rd day of work at the Safeway at Red Hill Shopping Center. Despite all my protestations (mainly muttered under my breath or just bouncing around my brain doing me no good) I find myself in the heart of American Corporate Supermarkets. The Albertsons/Safeway chain of Food Stores, includes 18 different 'sub-chains' of markets. The 3rd largest privately held Corporation in the US I am told. 

  Irony is celebrated here as the annual lottery game "Monopoly' is trumpeted from every corner of the store, with the dapper Parker Brothers iconic tycoon's smiling face looking at all the shoppers. From what I understand and I am hoping they are putting all that crap in the new 'Safeway Community Market' which will take over Andronico'sGuasco's… I just love the Irony of  opening day celebrating 'Monopoly'.

  Beyond that, enjoying meeting a new cast of characters at the Safeway the hard core no frills, just make it cheap, blue collar people of San Anselmo. No idea. 

  The 'SCM' will open up on Sunday the 26th.

  I'll save my ultimatums, and I oughta, and I shoulda, and I willa ….. one day at a time. 

Paradise Defended

 A few people, who thought I was going to be taking a few weeks off, a vacation between Andronico's shutting down and the opening of Safeway Community Market at 100 Center Boulevard the former site of the actual last community owned Market, Guasco's. Yes a few people asked me if I planned to have a vacation. I needed one.

 I said might cruise out to some tropical isles. Idle dreaming, fantasy, humor I didn't really mean it but
when my landlord Phil gave me a book to read called 'The Happy Isles of Oceania -- Paddling the Pacific' by Paul Theroux, in some little coincidence a few days later .. I figured I would have to dig in.

.... somewhere in the Pacific..

 'I paddled back to Taunga to ask a fisherman. All of them were out this lovely day, but I found Lini and she inquired among the women of Taunga. None of them had the slightest idea about the currents. This was not surprising-- woman did not paddle or sail in Tonga.
  "The beach at the tip of the island is very beautiful," I said.
  "Yes. We swim there."
  "Do tourists visit you?"
  "Sometimes in boats. A cruise ship came once. There were many people. They loved our village. They admired our houses and the flowers we planted."
  "What did the cruise ship look like?"
  "I don't remember," Lini said. "But they loved our beach."
  "Where did the people come from -- what country?"
  "I don't know," she said impatiently, as though it was a silly question.
   Just like a Tongan: he remembered only what the strangers had said about her village. She had taken no interest at all in the strangers. {lini is 17 years old, strangers are tourists}
   "There is no one swimming on the beach today," I said.
   "It is too far to go" it was about a ten-minute walk. She smiled and added  "A man from overseas told the king that he wanted to build a hotel on the beach. A very big hotel so that tourists will come".
   "What did the king say?"
   "He could not say anything to the man till he asked us."
   "So the king asked the village about building a hotel?"
   "Yes."
   "What did the village say?"
   "We don't want it," she said, and turned away.
   "Why not?"
   "We don't want those people."
   By those people she meant strangers.
   Tongan snobbery, offensiveness, incivility and rampant xenophobia has kept the glorious archipelago
of Vava'u one of the least spoiled places in the Pacific.
 
   
   Maybe we don't have to be incivil and offensive but just have to clearly defend our communities. Taking refugees infinitum is no solution. Time to rebuild and stop tearing down the world.

'Stir the Pot'

 A friend of mine told me a few days ago in encouraging me to keep speaking out. Her words were "Stir the Pot' .. Stir the Pot.

   There are large globs of political opinion that refuse to touch other parts of the stew that is the USA, the globs are so big and angry that it might seem wise to not even think about putting your spoon in the pot. My 'two cents'. You might as well put your hands into the moving blades of a lawnmower. When it's spinning left at such a high rate of speed, or maybe it's spinning right in your opinion. It seems like I could advocate 'offing the President' and my friends would probably all nod, 'Yup. Exactly. Well said.' If I was to say on the other hand 'God Bless The President' hmmm... anyways beyond these worries. Life is beautiful and we are on the verge of new illumination and the coming of the Aquarian Age.. and if you believe that, here's the deed to the Brooklyn Bridge.

 I've always liked the Brooklyn Bridge.. well since I got a good look at it and even more since I learned some history and that brings up the subject of history. Not just a story of the past but the
unfolding of events right now here in 2017 and on the crest of LIFE as it happens this ripple (or give it your own interpretation) in time, best read in a good Newspaper of which there are plenty to be found. The New York Times, The LA Times, Chicago Tribune, the Washington Post. San Francisco Chronicle was a pretty good paper and it still has a core of pretty good reporters doing there best. Though if I was teaching a history class or teaching young people how to understand history via Newspapers you have to take into account 'the Spin'. Right now the spin from the Newspapers is like a cyclone, every act every word, of the new President, is placed in the great motivation how can we get rid of him. How can we save ourselves of this embarrassment of a human and his gang of 'deplorables'. A Fascist in the White House, a terrible tyrant, are you crying wolf?  I am keeping an eye on it.  A friend tells me 'The Jury is out' . I agree with him, three weeks into his administration, give him a little room. You think the Republicans were mean to Obama? Now it's our turn. Maybe then again maybe President Trump's personality is so 'unrestrained' that any moment something will happen that might change my mind and I will feel ashamed for even thinking of trying to defend him.
That seems to be the awkward position for anyone that is a supporter of him at any length, let alone being someone who had the courage ... or the rottenness of spirit to vote for him. I thank the people who had the courage to vote for him. Very grateful the charade of the last eight years is over. I voted for the Green Party candidate, because I hate the idea of 'Torture' even being close to something our country would tolerate.

   IN the flood of events that we have gone through a few words are spun into  horrendous indignation. 'We are not that innocent.' Add that to the outrage, what a shocking statement how dare you offend the USA, the Progressive USA, the bastion of Democracy, after all that is why we have the planet divided up in grid with our Centers of Military Strength ready to protect our 'National Interests' when called upon. Look at him suck up to Putin that Evil man. How deplorable.

   http://mondoweiss.net/2016/12/demonizing-tillerson-stigmatizing/

  Can you imagine Bernie Sanders saying 'we are not that innocent' Yeah, Bernie is the greatest! How about Noam Chomsky another favorite of the left, I think he gets a lot of it right, not it all but who does. They can say it, but not now, we parrot the line! Dump Trump!

  What else? 'The Muslim Ban'. That rollout was an embarrassment... however to sign an executive act that postpones the immigration by 90 days in order to check the vetting process of those refugees
from the 7 Middle Eastern nations and that cuts the annual amount of refugees in half from 100,000 to 50,000 into the USA. ......

  It's complicated.. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/jan/28/trump-immigration-ban-syria-muslims-reaction-lawsuits  It's not a Muslim Ban or is it? Of course I have been an old grouch even when I was young, believing that the USA needed a 10 year moratorium on almost all immigration back in the 80's. I thought 10 years of 100,000 people each year is about right to give us some time to heal our cities and our communities. Could you take it completely out of the realm of religion, instead it is your philosophy of life that is totally important. Is your religion and or Philosophy an American Philosophy? We believe that all Americans ... what was it Jefferson and Madison were working on....?

As to the invocation of Jefferson, we know that when he and James Madison first proposed the Virginia Statute on Religious Freedom (the frame and basis of the later First Amendment to the Constitution) in 1779, the preamble began, "Well aware that Almighty God hath created the mind free." from Slate, Christopher Hitchens

 What a beautiful concept. Strikes me that way.

 The counter is endorsing a Philosophy that says ... God's good graces are only for those who share my philosophy, my holy book, my prophets. ... That is a philosophy that should get you a simple and clear .. No thank you as a welcome member of The United States. So that is my suggestion as Trump looks at the extensive vetting process involved in letting any prospective citizen in.  Whether you are Christian, Muslim, Atheist, Hindu, Pagan whatever if you put acceptance of your philosophy
as the only way a human is given God, or the Universe or Winnie the Pooh's blessings then you will not make a good member of the country we are working to pass on to our children.

  The United States planetary empire, as a bastion of light, backed up by the greatest military force ever assembled, is simply unsustainable.  Obama never noticed that and very likely Trump won't either, yet still that's the big transformation up ahead, and maybe these cracks, chinks in the armour of our paradigm might allow some alternative visions to take root. When conservatives are endorsing Wikileaks do we join in condemning Wikileaks or do we say hmmm.. ? Maybe this weird Trump Presidency has the potential to open all kinds of closed minds up to new possibilities. Yes of course fight the laws you disagree with or the laws that violate our constitution or the acts that violate our constitution. I wish I had spoken out stronger when 'our' guy was in office. The new Presidency.. the jury is out for many Americans, if you are certain that he stands condemned for crimes and misdemeanors you are entitled to your opinion.

  I found a couple of people who in falling into conversation out at a West Marin Bar, while the Patriots were being demolished by the Falcons, found that we had remarkable agreement on the state of our country. A lady friend used the words 'Hazing' as to what President Trump is being subjected to, well it does certainly seem that the press is indeed 'the opposition party'.. Perhaps we are just all subject to 'the Matmos', remember that subterranean threatening mass of violence and danger and  Barbarella,  trying to navigate us, stop feeding this beast beneath us. Just before I left, I encountered a friend who tied them all up, Trump, Brady and the Patriots, with something nasty and funny (I guess) in one phrase that involved that part of the body that is always available for derogatory statements. I said 'God Bless Trump' in a voice that wasn't a whisper, but it seemed to make me even more tired.   I was exhausted, I left the party with the score at 28-12 what was it 9 minutes to go. I cringe and get emotionally crunched, by a world turned so divisive. I went home and watched the end of the game with my Landlord or did I stand Alone in front of that big screen watching those reviled Patriots stun the sports world.
 

Jefferson and Islam ( I. )

http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/fighting_words/2007/01/jeffersons_quran.html

California Noir ... Milestone of Justice

Is the whole experience of 'politics' as we try to figure it out-- like a Detective Story with twists and turns and it's your job to dig deep, real deep. Look a little beyond the usual suspects. Don't settle for the popular explanation unless you have explored the opposition. What is the opposition?

Last night my friend/landlord lent me a Detective Story to read. A couple of nights before He had given me another one a French classic by a dude named Simenon written in 1932, it kept me turning pages but it was a little weak. 'The Madman of Bergerac' with Inspector Maigret. OK but eh..

 So he sent me into the world of Ross McDonald, author of Drowning Pool, this one is bad, in a good way. This author had this California Noir thing working. Another of his books was made into the great Detective movie of the '60s 'Harper' with Paul Newman...  Drowning Pool written in 1950.

  'I turned on my back and floated looking up at the sky, nothing around me but cool clear Pacific, nothing in my eyes but long blue space. It was as close as I ever got to cleanliness and freedom as far as I ever got from all the people. They had jerrybuilt the beaches from San Diego to the Golden Gate, bulldozed super-highways through the mountains, cut down a thousand years of redwood growth, and built an urban wilderness in the desert. They couldn't touch the Ocean. they poured their sewage into it but it couldn't be tainted.
  There was nothing wrong with Southern California that a rise in sealevel couldn't cure.   .....'

 ' I felt like a lonely cat, an aging tom ridden by an obscure rage, looking for torn-ear trouble. I clipped that pitch off short and threw it away. Night streets were my territory and would be till I rolled in the last gutter.'  ......

 'His face was moist and pallid with malevolence. For less than a day he had been rich and free I'd tumbled him back into the small time, perhaps into the shadow of the gas chamber.'

  'You're going to take a ride in a little one, and don't try for a break, Reavis, or you will limp the rest of your life" ('Limp the rest of your Life... ' When are we going to have a Police Force which can handle that alternative instead of shooting to kill --my quotes)

   'He told me to do an impossible thing, but he came along quietly to my car. "You drive" I said "I haven't had time to look at the scenery."
Thats so rotten when people tell you to do impossible things...

  Ross McDonald lived in Santa Barbara and besides being a prolific author he devoted himself to 'conservation and politics' being active in working against the oil rigs off the coast of SoCal. Phil tells me he also befriended Warren Zevon the brilliant 'Werewolves of London' rocker after Zevon looked him up one day while he was living down there, he was a passionate reader of Ross McDonald books.
I might have to pick up another one of his books... that was a good read.

  The SF Chronicle.. looking at Obama's legacy,  says the killing of Osama Bin Laden was 'a milestone of justice'. Do you think? Are you willing to accept that story?