Six months ago, I would have supposed the chaos in Local, National and Global news might eventually come to an end. In all honesty, even then it did seem that Covid events and Political motivations would keep the pump primed for some time, perhaps well into 2022?
But who would have thought that by now we would be looking at seemingly endless turmoil?
Well, first to happier things. My recent travels caused me to return my sailboat North to Richmond for haul-out and (proactive) repairs. It is a two-hour run from deep within the Alameda channel, with me first passing Jack London Square to the East, then up alongside Treasure Island (T.I.), running under the new section of the Bay Bridge.
The run after T.I. continues in waters exposed to the so-called Slot of heavier San Francisco (SF) Bay winds passing Alcatraz Island after pushing in under the Golden Gate Bridge. Waters there are more exposed and seldom see much under 25 mph winds during early morning runs amid the often-blustery sailing season.
Next to the East there are always a few early morning fishermen trying their hands in the shallowing waters, alongside high spots and obstructions; never yet have I noticed anyone reeling in a catch as I veered around them.
Here the Easterly depths can run too shallow for safe passage, so it is essential to head mostly North, avoiding submerged risks and mounds, following the friendlier depth contours on the chart plotter.
The winds and waves abate a little once in the lee of Angel Island, even though its shores lay a few miles to Port. Passing further Northeast of the Island at the tail of Racoon Straits the winds stir up a little more until the easterly side of the Marin headlands running up to the San Quentin prison throws more protection across to the Richmond channel entrance.
The commercial channel itself is approached via a string of red marker buoys to starboard, originating where tankers enter, docking to the port of my route at the great bend where the Richmond coastline hooks suddenly North and then gently swings more Easterly.
With a draft of seven feet, I avoid entering the navigation lanes from its Westerly mouth; I cut in early between marker buoys, short of the spit and head due East along the main channel.
It is a long channel. To starboard lies that narrow, barren spit of land, partially augmented with innumerable rocks deposited to secure its lines from eroding tides. The boulders provide an impressive roost for thousands of pelicans than taint the channel air with their characteristic acrid stench. There are low points along the spit where the distant Bay Bridge peeks through from the horizon.
It was a peaceful run down the Navigation Lanes, riding on Autohelm and sipping hot tea from a flask, making small, occasional bearing changes as slight bends and gentle port turns appear along the way.
The sun came out and warmed as a large, empty twin-hulled ferry ambled past, center channel. She ran down another mile or two and made the sharp swing North at the wide Potrero Turn where tankers and cargo vessels throw out their sterns when making the same severe maneuver.
There was little traffic. What few larger vessels were around stood tethered immovably to the aging docks in this last Northly few miles of the slowly narrowing commercial channel. Everything was still and calm; little industry and movement is visible these days. The Marinas and Richmond Yacht club lay some miles behind me and there was no sporting-vessel traffic so deep into the port this day.
I travelled another mile or so up this Northerly heading to the Boatyard, watched the few crying gulls circle as I called ahead, approached and docked on-time for my appointment and haul-out.
It remains an impressive sight to watch a 12.5 Ton boat strapped, cradled and hauled up some dozen feet from the water, driven around in a stilt-like frame sporting five-foot-high wheels at each corner, dangling in two large slings, to then be lowered onto her supported keel, propped and braced, standing now alone some two hundred yards from where she was hauled-out.
Work, phone calls and investigations went as planned and like all good owners I ponied up the repair costs some 10 days later, had the boat splashed back to water and returned the vessel to her now home-port of Alameda.
Ah, boat repairs. It is always an adventure.
Continuing this nautical theme…
These days the bottleneck Santa Cruz harbor entrance gets busier in the evenings. Sailboat numbers seem like pre-Covid times. Each night the boats dutifully line up and parade back into the harbor, seeking out their near and sometime more distant slips and tie-ups.
On Wednesdays, the Beer Can Races have resumed. From the cliff-head on 26th Avenue I can count 30-40 vessels of assorted sizes out for these events, clustered in competing groups as racing begins.
When racing is finished the sailboats dutifully run under ballooning, brightly colored and diverse spinnakers towards the harbor entrance; it is peaceful to greet them there, watching from the groaning docks sprawling out beneath The Crow’s Nest Restaurant and Cafe.
Some vessels drop sail as they enter the harbor, others more adventurous run down passed the slipway to starboard to lose the wind well before reaching the harbor bridge at Johnny’s restaurant. And all this as the Summery winds become gentler, the sun dips and the air cools to greet the sunset.
A day or so later I board a flight to Alaska. Time to escape my Bay Area and Santa Cruz shackles, go fishing and return with enough fish to stock my newly acquired freezer for the coming months. More about this outing in my next Blog.
Now it is time to consider the everyday published events of the last four or five weeks.
As you read this you will already have your own experiences of News personally watched or read during this same period. Here I try to provide notes of repeatedly credible reports and explanations of what is sometimes unsaid or politically avoided by MSM.
So let me dig into many of these events that have occurred…
First to consider is an early July Rasmussen Poll that found 58% of respondents feel MSM cannot be trusted and is at least somewhat responsible for many of the woes we see today.
It is clear that the gild is off the lily for Kamala Harris’ future political prospects as her polling numbers have declined and continue to do so (quicker than Bidens) after inaction and on-going fails on her Boarder Assignment, her outing relative to historical unpopularity, recent toxic work environment accusations and invisible presence driving Administration Voting Rights objectives.
Senior Dems are already pulling away from having Kamala participate in their campaigns and July polling by the Trafalgar Group show some 64% of American’s do not feel she is fit for the Presidential Office; this includes almost 45% of Dems polled.
She is not liked and never was. What will time bring for her future, with Biden gaffing his way daily into history and MSM unable to stifle the many circulating records of these embarrassments?
A group of mask-less Dems fled Texas to prevent a quorum for State voting on Voting Law Reformation. These fifty or so representatives then turned up (at least) reportedly six Covid-positive members who then infected people in DC who hosted and caucused with them.
Some of these Reps seem likely to face legal issues for abandoning their paid public posts if and when they return to Texas.
Inflation has surged. I am certain you noticed the Gas prices and general price increases in Supermarkets and stores? Looks like we are being told this is temporary and the inflation highs will go away. Many experts advise this cannot be the case. I must say I hope the $5.50 /gallon I recently saw on REGULAR gas in the SF Bay Area will not become a norm; this is an era where $4.00 was considered a total disaster just months ago.
These difficulties come on top of the still growing Southern Border crisis (>200,000 temporarily detained in July and >35,000 known escaped) that includes the massive Fentanyl influx (July saw enough come in to kill every American five times over), and where local Governors (esp. Texas) are now taking troop action to catch and incarcerate illegal entrants. Border States have no faith in Federal Intentions; even Wisconsin Governor Evers (Dem.) is helping and sending troops. Looks like the scale of disaster has people concerned about keeping their jobs.
There are riots in South Africa and Cuba where people are dying and disappearing. Folks are protesting their governments and conditions. The US seems confused about who they want to support in Cuba and Administration desires to normalize relations in support of the communist Government are NOT making many Cuban Americans or escapees from similar South American locales very happy.
The Keystone XL Pipeline developer is suing Biden and the US Government for $15B for breaking trade agreements and immediately cancelling the jobs of 11,000 American with some >1,000,000 more infrastructure jobs being lost in the immediately following years.
Crime is exploding everywhere in the US. Most large cities are Blue, in disarray with catastrophic and record crime increases following on the heels of Defund the Police movements having been pursued in many major locales. Practically every major city is in trouble and those trying to backtrack on their political actions are struggling to recover their now retired or resigned and disappeared officers.
Places in trouble include Chicago, Washington DC, Detroit, Portland, San Francisco, Seattle, New York, Los Angeles, etc. etc. Chicago says its police force is outnumbered 10:1 by rampant gang members and they are hamstrung by new and ever-increasing restrictions on their actions.
In NYC July saw a man arrested 19-times in the prior 8 mos. for burglary charged with assaulting a 10-year-old girl in her bed. The Police said they can offer no logical explanation how this can have occurred. Sigh. ☹
Meanwhile, George Soros continues to Sponsor Defund and even ELIMINATE the police movements (in Minneapolis). And AOC believes that if we get rid of all prisons there will be no crime, “it’s as simple as that.”
So, we have both malicious and foolish people with which to contend, though I believe the voting public that allowed the supportive Representatives into power are the real culprits. Perhaps they are simply reaping what they sowed?
And as for the Mask Mandates, well here we go again. They were recently mostly rescinded across the US but with the Delta Mutation prevalence they are being re-instated everywhere after a 2month respite. Vaccinated or not, masking is becoming a requirement, as is vaccination. In the CA Bay Area indoor masking became required again for everyone (vaccinated or not) in the surrounding five Counties and this, combined with S. Cal restrictions, means that most Californians must again be masked-up indoors.
Do not expect this to change soon. The Delta Variant is the preponderant strain across the US and is heavily hyped. With many Businesses, Government Bodies and Schools (Universities) demanding vaccinations for all attendees, and Rules emerging for the non-vaccinated to be excluded from (currently NY restaurants, bars, work-out locations etc.) normal activities, the outlook is bleak.
I expect it is a matter of time before Vaccination Passports are required and Vaccination is mandated. Today I read that Health Experts believe a Vaccination and Masking Mandate (for all) is both legal and necessary. With the survival rate of >>99% for those infected with the Delta Virus these actions are aggressive indeed.
There will be many people upset by such mandates as 71% polled in late July felt vaccination is a personal choice. In Australia they began using troops to enforce lockdown measures at the beginning of August. It makes me wonder how enforcement could or might proceed in the US and Europe?
At least those prone to farting in public will have renewed cover inherently provided by newly re-masked and oblivious victims in their general vicinity. 😉
Personally, I wish and need to travel, so I was vaccinated. However, I also read today that there is again heightened talk that the unvaccinated should not be allowed to travel.
With the US population vaccination coverage just (belatedly) reaching 70% all those who are AMMENABLE to being vaccinated have likely already received their required doses. Despite MY choices I believe those NOT wishing to be vaccinated should have their wishes and rights respected, whether or not I personally agree with their reasoning.
Interestingly, the French are rioting to defend this Personal Liberty.
Then there are the observably problem people among us who unashamedly continue to survive, in the face of decency, at least for now…
Gavin Newsom’s legal recall is now surprisingly looking quite serious for him. In deep Blue CA, his support is quickly declining as I write. It is the usual dynamic: Big Cities are Blue (San Fran., LA and San Diego) and most all other territory is deep Red and folks there do not like the power-grabbing, rule-breaking, illegal personal-gain Covid Funding acquiring, visibly adulterous Gavin.
His recently disclosed blunders and willful mismanagement of fire-fighting funds are further tanking his credibility.
However, the election itself is planned with everyone receiving mail-in ballots. Hmm… the same approach as was legally outlawed in France mid 1970’s because of the obviously massive opportunity for fraud. Wow.
Sadly, I believe he might still escape removal and we will eventually see him running for President.
Then there is our newly Artistic Hero, Hunter Biden. Neither cocaine, corruption, compromised business dealings, infidelities, an implicated father, fraud, immersion in prostitution and sales of access to the Big Guy can touch this mighty soul. His personal email and laptop have been found and verified, with his hard drive copied to all in sundry; this both proves his complicity and defines his guilt.
Yet I believe there will never be a charge made against him… ☹
Next comes Gov Andrew Cuomo. The Report about him has been delivered (by the-herself- questionable, AG Letitia James) and State Authorities want to Impeach and remove him quickly. The basis for removal being the claims from about a dozen or so women made against him, surrounding his sexual harassment actions and behaviors which break both State and Federal Laws.
It seems most of the Dem community (Biden and on down) in DC, the US and NY have condemned him and want him to resign immediately. But some local Counties want to investigate, more.
Intriguingly, Biden let him off the hook with no DOJ investigation of Nursing Home deaths being planned. This lets Cuomo and at least four other Dem Governors (including the notorious, power-hungry and deceitful Whitmer of Michigan) unpunished for what were at best blatantly obvious acts of depraved indifference and cover-ups to follow… my comments being a POLITE version about what were certainly intentional, known-bad and deliberate actions.
I think Cuomo will be Indicted and yet still prove tough to remove from future office. ☹
What is puzzling to me is the circumstances surrounding the women who came forward to disclose his actions, all I would guess either have husbands, brothers, fathers or significant others. Similarly, those who lost friends and family in Nursing Homes have relatives and people close to them. Over his three terms and perverse actions in recent years, how is it that nobody has physically gone after the Luv Guv in the heat of the moment? Surely SOMEBODY was upset enough NOT to rely on the hope that justice would eventually reach him?
And as for little brother Chris Cuomo of CNN: The James report also flagged him as an unauthorized recipient of privileged State Documents and he is well-known for his inappropriate helping hand in protecting his sibling in the media, participating in brother Andrew’s aides’ brainstorming telecons and Press Release draftings when they were fighting off harassment revelations.
At best little Chris was journalistically compromised and treading illegally with that document access. MSNBC and a few Leftist Rags have called for the firing of him on these grounds (mostly, I suspect, with their own competitive motivations 😉)
Personally, I was never a fan of his since he faked being responsibly quarantined in his basement during his COVID infection yet was caught threatening a 60-year-old cyclist who found him out-and-about, viewing his new country home while daily claiming to be still indoors. He then had the gall to televise his emergence from that basement many days after he had been outed! What a reporter. What nerve. 😊
Then there is President Biden himself…
Why does the MSM ignore his propensity for telling whoppers? Recently he told a trucking company gathering he drove a (18-wheeler) truck. Historically I recall him claiming University degrees and academic standards WAY beyond reality, saying he was arrested for trying to see Mandala in South Africa, falsely asserting he pushed Obama to attack Osama Bin Laden… the trail goes on and on.
All these tales and (the many) more are easily verifiable by anybody of any political persuasion as being complete falsehoods. Why would anyone make such claims? History has him now as a mentally declining, gaffe-riddled pathological liar who has been on the wrong side of every major policy decision for the last fifty years. And he is the preferred President? This is just sad.
Next up is the Administration’s desire to Censor American’s personal SMS text content…
Their stated goal is to control MISINFORMATION… MISinformation can be factually correct, just not what the censors want. Who decides what is MISinformation, anyway?
All texts and digital Comms for US residents have been monitored since Obama times. So now we are moving to direct censorship, regarding Vaccines for COVID.
If this happens it is inevitable all texts will be eventually monitored for any unwanted content AS IS DEFINED AND DICTATED BY THE DESIGNATED CENSORS. This is State control of PRIVATE speech.
Any censorship or modification is the action of an Authoritarian Government. It is dictatorial and more commonly aligned to Communist Government control as currently seen in Cuba and everyday life in China.
Moving right along…
I must wonder what really occurred with the January 6th Capitol Building incursion. Will we ever know?
GOP Reps have been actively prevented from seeing detainees who are reportedly being tortured and beaten, some illegally held 23hrs/day in solitary confinement, defying International Laws and Standards.
The single person shot at and killed on the day (Ashli Babbit, a retired female Vet) now appears to have relatives that can show she was unwarned before being shot by a 53-year-old black officer while she was clambering through a window. The videos are being held close, but they supposedly show a quite different version of events than reported in MSM.
The whole affair and intrusion could have been avoided if the Speaker (Pelosi) had NOT actively chosen to refuse Policing coverage for the well-known, planned event on the sixth. And now the Police guards on that day are all to receive Gold Medals as voted by the Senate.
Polls from mid-July show that less than 50% of Americans are interested in the ongoing January 6th investigation whereas almost 70% want detailed reviews of the riots, protests and unrest that destroyed many US cities throughout 2020 and beyond.
Further afield in Afghanistan…
The US has baled-out and the Taliban is immediately back in force in the Country with the Administration trying to get Afghani friends to the US before they are butchered in the streets.
China is now getting involved there with tacit acceptance from the Administration. The CCP motives? An Enemy of my Enemy is my Friend, perhaps?
Back to the Immigration Onslaught…
The Administration has been illegally using planes out of Laughlin AFB (Texas) to fly undocumented minors from the border to unknown locations in the US Interior. The people on base are not told where the flights are going, but I suppose with an imminent mandate for universal military vaccination now hanging over them, they have other things to worry about.
NOTE: Biden previously mandated that all Federal Employees must be vaccinated or face a weekly testing regimen.
In July, the Left-leaning BBC reported migrant children being kept in heartbreaking conditions at the border and in August whistle-blowers reported they were told by Homeland Security to downplay the Covid outbreaks at the Border.
It seems that Vaccination Passports may soon be required for formal foreign travelers to the US but those Covid-infected illegals crossing and released at the Southern Border are of little or no concern. Over 90% of illegals released into the US never show for the required legal appointments to review their admission status and illegal border crossings (now at >>200, 000 per month) are the definition of a Super-Spreader event.
Biden has re-instated the Obama-era practice of flying illegals from Central Africa directly to US homes. The practice was terminated by Trump and recently re-implemented. The reasoning for the practice and reset is currently unclear to me.
Back in China the flooding of the City of Zhengzhou disrupted all social, travel and business infrastructure late July and displaced over 1,200,000 people. Typical of the region and CCP only twenty-five deaths were reported.
Both China and India blew-off their 2015 Paris Agreement Pledges for Carbon Emission submissions, due to the UN at the end of July. China ranks first in emissions and India third, bookending the US as second. It seems the deadline has been moved to the end of 2021 to accommodate many such participant delinquencies credited to the Pandemic Era.
The Olympics seem to have brought some light and joy into many lives. The theme I continuously hear is how much people enjoyed seeing the numerous different countries winning medals.
The protests and personal demonstrations appear to have been largely NOT covered by media outlets or at least sparsely reported in the States where maintaining viewership is key. A few people told me they did not watch Olympic coverage and events so they could certainly avoid the irritation of chance protests and demonstrations.
It appears from the dismal ratings that many people woked-away from viewing the coverage.
The Mexican Government has grown tired of bloodshed in their communities and so a suit is being brought by them OUTSIDE of US Laws against a litany of (US) Gun Manufacturers; they may have standing to pull this off.
Similar previous City suits from within the US were not tenable as Congressional ruling provided the Gun Bloc with associated protections. But OUTSIDE of US rulings this might hold sway. Attacking gun manufacturers using this external approach would affect the same dire consequences upon their financial well-being.
Oddly, the Mexican Government almost seems apologetic about their actions. Why? I wonder who really instigated and incentivized these actions? 😉
And in closing is the overdue, much-heralded BIPARTISAN $1T Infrastructure Bill. Will it, won’t it pass and be followed with a >$3.5 T follow-on PARTISAN Dem package? Who knows where all this might land? But as a concern…
It seems that page 508 of this 2,700-page ($1T) missive contains the right for the Government to install a Mileage Tax upon Citizens. This will involve tracking people. This will increase costs of all products, which are transported. I think I see the thin edge of several very large wedges approaching. ☹
That is really IT, from myself. Above you see the Good, Bad and very Ugly of the last month.
I am off on my travel and will report on my experiences, soon.
As I have asked before…
Are you, friends and loved ones getting the essential breaks and absences you need away from the avalanche of mostly unfortunate Daily News?
Let me challenge you to find a way to take a break. Buy some solitary and group time to lighten your personal load, making the absolute best of your own and others’ lives.
Ian R. Mackintosh is the author of Empower Your Inner Manager Twitter@ianrmackintosh.