The Trump Tipping Point - Stolen Documents Turn The Tide

During Watergate, it wasn't clear whether  Nixon would be able to ride things out or not until the Senate Watergate Committee played the secret tapes Nixon recorded in the Oval Office.  That was the turning point.  The point when Nixon supporters stopped supporting Nixon.  

Trump supporters are a different breed. Some will never stop supporting him, or at least the idea of Trump.  But lots of Republican politicians only support Trump because they fear losing 'his base' and his support at election time.  Others also fear the damaging information Trump has on them.  

But the top secret documents - their existence and the realization of what Trump likely plans to do with them, or already has done with them - feel to me like the turning point.  Even if Republican politicians don't publicly voice their opposition, the public, combined with the wave of energized pro-choice voters, will make their opinion known in November.  

But I want to remind folks that with Watergate, resolution didn't happen quickly.

Back in May I compared the January 6 hearings to the Watergate hearings, which I listened to/watched live at the time.  I also tried to put the timing from the Watergate Break-in to Nixon's resignation into perspective.  From that post: 

• The break-in occurred May 28, 1972 (50 years ago).  
• Nixon was reelected in November 1972
• Alexander Butterfield testified about the existence of the White House tapes  before the Watergate Committee on July 16, 1973.
• Nixon resigned August 9, 1974.

These events just plodded along.  Here's a detailed timeline.  

My point was that these things take time and that it was never certain that Nixon would actually be ensnared in the scandal.  Until he was.

In hindsight, it appears that the country's mood changed when we learned that the White House taped all the Oval Office conversations.  It was clear that once we heard the tapes, we'd know who had been telling the truth and who had been lying, about what Nixon knew and when he knew it.  (And the president lying to the American public mattered back then.)

And when the Watergate committee started playing the  tapes live on national television, those who were supporting Nixon knew the jig was up.  But if you look at the timeline, it was over a year between the public revelation of the existence of the tapes and Nixon's resignation.  

The Tweet below is the kind of indication I'm talking about in terms of people's understanding of the seriousness of the classified documents in Trump's possession.

God. This is awful. He has betrayed our country in the worst way imaginable.

— RSMe (@7104child) August 27, 2022

For tens of millions, there were enough infractions to impeach, prosecute, and imprison Trump long ago.  But for other United States citizens, treason is the unforgivable transgression.

This Tweet suggests to me thatt the revelations in the last ten days tip the scales.  People are beginning to realize that not only did he illegally take all these documents, but that these highly secret documents have lots of information that could jeopardize US national security.  

Despite what we already know about Trump, the Tweeter is only now having his real Aha moment.

It's starting to sink in that Trump not only was probably planning to use these documents to raise funds, but that there is a good chance he's already shared some/much of the information to foreign nations that are not particularly friendly to the US. 

People have asked why would Saudi Arabia 'invest" $2 billion in Jared Kushner's investment company.  The documents give us a plausible explanation.  And now there's a timeline that shows Trump talked to Putin, then asked for list of top spies, and then US experiences big loss of informants.

Known Timeline:

1. 7/31/2019: Trump spoke with Putin (NYT)

2. 8/3/2019: Trump issued a request for a list of top US spies (The Daily Beast)

3. 10/5/2021: "CIA Admits to Losing Dozens of Informants". (NYT)

4. 8/26/2022: Documents at MAL Could Compromise Human Intel (NYT) 1/5 pic.twitter.com/rqNqRZUQL2

— The Intellectualist (@highbrow_nobrow) August 27, 2022

We don't know yet whether these killings of US confidential informants happened because Trump provided the documents to some foreign government(s), but even if he didn't, his possession of these documents is more than serious.  And there is no evidence that Trump has any moral principle other than "me, me, me."

This is not another scandal that should get a -gate tagged onto the end.  This is SO MUCH BIGGER than Watergate.  This will require a whole new vocabulary to do it justice.  Benedict Arnold and Judas will be replaced by Trump when people want to accuse someone of treason.

But don't hold your breath for Trump to be indicted, let alone tried, or even put into prison.  It will still take a while, if it happens at all.

Nixon saved the country a lot of time and grief by resigning.  As vain as Nixon was, he was a great president in comparison to Trump.  Under his watch we got things like The Freedom Of Information Act, The Privacy Act, and a slew of environmental laws like the Clean Water Act and the Environmental Protection Act.  And Nixon unlocked the door between China and the United States.  Mind you, I thought then and do now, that he was a vile man and did great harm to the US (think prolonging the Vietnam War among other things).  But he understood history and had enough sense of honor to not wish to be an impeached president.  So he resigned.

Trump, as he has done with every disagreement he's been involved in over his adult lifetime, is going to stall, threaten, counter attack, drag out, and everything else he can think of to tire out his opponents.  But it appears that he's now having trouble hiring a decent attorney.

The tides do seem to be turning.  Trump is scrambling but there isn't much firm footing under him.  And while the people who continue to answer his text exhortations to send him money will probably put up Trump figurines and candles in their homes, his less cultish supporters are going to have to figure out how to shift alliances.

But I expect there won't be any indictments until after the November midterm elections.  Then there will be fights over how to try an ex-president, how to get a fair jury, whether trying him will enrage his base (as if they could get more self-righteously enraged) and whether NOT trying him would enrage the rest of the country.  

We've got at least a year or more of this drama.  How will all this affect Trump's health?  His dad lived to 93, but was a much thinner man with a lot less stress.  And the Trump cultists will continue to work out their own personal social and mental problems by worshipping their fallen hero.  

So, while we're at a big turning point in the Trump saga, it's going to take a while yet.  And if Republicans win the House and/or Senate, it's going to take even longer.  If the Kansas abortion vote wasn't a fluke, and the same forces vote for Democrats in November, then it will move along faster.  

AK Redistricting - What's Next? Court Decisions And . . .?

The Supreme Court upheld the Superior Court's conclusion that the Board majority had gerrymandered once again and lifted the stay on the order for the Board to adopt Option 2 for the 2022 election.  But the Supreme Court did NOT lift the stay on having the Board adopt a permanent map for the rest of the decade.  

So, what's happening next?  There are two key factors:

1. What possible map other than the interim one (Option 2) could the Board come up with that would meet the narrow guidelines of the Superior Court?  
2. When is the Supreme Court going to weigh in?

First let's look at the possible maps, and then I'll share what I learned from the media liaison at the Supreme Court today.   

What possible maps other than option 2 could the Board draw that wouldn't be challenged?

My conclusion here is:  There isn't much wiggle room for the Board majority if they get the maps again.  First, they were told explicitly that the Senate Seat K (ER and South Muldoon) was intentionally gerrymandered and more vaguely that the two ER districts should be together.  They separated Seat K and put South Muldoon with North Muldoon.  But instead of pairing the two ER districts together, they left the Chugiak/ER district paired with JBER/Govt Hill and paired the other ER district with South Anchorage.  

The second time they were told to use Option 2, which also paired the two Muldoon districts, but paired the ER districts.  The Board minority (particularly member Marcum) REALLY wanted to keep Chugiak paired with JBER/Govt Hill.  But pairing the ER districts into one senate seat meant JBER got paired with another district in north downtown.  

I just don't see many choices for the Board now.  One of the instructions was to only make as many changes as necessary to fix the unconstitutional gerrymandering.  So there are a couple of Anchorage Bowl districts bordering JBER that could be played with, but I don't see any big payoff for anyone.  (I could be missing some incumbent pairing possibly.)  

That's a long way of saying the 2022 interim map seems like the only map that makes sense for the rest of the decade.  The Board majority could make a couple of Senate pairing changes just to show they won't be stuck with the Court order completely, but it would really be a waste of time and it would mess up incumbents and voters to change their Senate seats just out of spite.  

For those who want more detail about the changes, I've prepared the table below and the key parts of the 2021 map and the May 2022 map below.

This really isn't too difficult a problem.  But because we've gone through three different maps that caused a number of Anchorage House Districts to change numbers, it's tricky to describe.  So, let's look at the changes in the Anchorage House District numbers.  

NOTE
Senate districts are made by pairing two House Districts No House districts changed boundaries Some did change numbers Some did change Senate Seat pairing partners

I tried to make a chart showing which districts changed numbers, which changed Senate pairings, and which stayed the same.  I've used color to illustrate the changes.  I suggest you look at the chart, then look below the chart for more explanation of the colors.  

[Explanation:  Column 1 is the 2021 Proclamation Plan.  These are the original house districts and Senate pairings (#s are the House designation, Letters are the Senate pairings).  Column one are all aqua. 

If nothing ever changes, like HD 11 F, it stays aqua throughout.  

If the # changes the top half of the cell goes salmon the first time and lime green the second time. (unless  it changes back to the original number,  then it goes back to aqua.).  HD 9 (South Anchorage) kept the same number in the April map, but got paired with ER the second time.  So it stayed aqua on top, but changed to yellow on the bottom.  In May it kept its number and got its old Senate partner back, so it goes back to all aqua.  

If the Senate pairing changes, the bottom goes yellow the first time and blue the second time (unless it goes back to the original pairing, the it goes back to aqua.)]

Yes, I realize this is way too complicated, and if you find a simpler way to show it, please share it with me.  Here's another way to do this:  look at the maps.  But some districts are too big to fit.  I'd note that I'm only looking at the 2021 map and the last map (Option 2, May 2022).  

I've drawn boundaries around the Senate pairings.  Red is JBER/Chugiak/ER;  Black is ER/South Muldoon.  Blue is North Muldoon and U-Med.  Green is Downton and North Mt. View.  That's eight house districts, four Senate seats that are in play.  

Below is the May 2022 Option 2 map being used for the 2022 election.  The two Eagle River districts are paired (black lines.)  JBER/Govt. Hill are together (red).  North and South Muldoon are together (blue).  Then there are two others paired together (the former pairing of North Muldoon with the former pairing of Downtown (lime green.)  

That's pretty much all they can play with.  The Eagle River Senate seat is set.  The Muldoon Senate seat is set.  If you switched JBER/Govt Hill from downtown to North Mountain View, then you'd have to use some other districts.  

That leaves us with what is the court going to do next?  I emailed the Supreme Court's media liaison, Meredith Montgomery.  Below are my questions and her answers.

Q1.  When I look at the appellate court Most Requested Cases page (https://appellate-records.courts.alaska.gov/CMSPublic/Search/Media)  there are two redistricting cases listed.  One says "opinion issued" and the other says "closed."  But the Justices said earlier they'd give us a longer document which explained their April decision.  Is that still coming?

A1. There are two supreme court redistricting cases as you point out.  S-18332 is the one where we had the oral argument in March and issued a short order with the "full opinion to follow" language.  We don't really have a better status than "opinion issued" to reflect what is happening, but the case is still open and we are waiting for the "full opinion" to be issued.  The second case, S-18419 came to us as a petition for review on Judge Matthews's order following remand from our March order, and the supreme court quickly affirmed Judge Matthews ruling on the Board's second map and since we did not retain jurisdiction over that part of the case it is "closed."  

Q2.   What about a further explanation of their May 24, 2022 Order?  Might the two be consolidated?

A2. I have no idea if the "opinion to follow" in S-18332 will discuss anything further in the S-18419 case.  

Q3.  In the May 24 Order, they left the stay on for Judge Matthews' remand for the Board to work on a new plan for post 2022 elections.  Is there another order going to come on that?  There isn't much wiggle room for the Board to make changes to the map for 2022.  Does leaving the stay imply just leaving the 2022 map as the permanent map? (I know you can't answer that, but just to let you know the sense of my questions now, but some better closure than what we have now is necessary.)

A3.  I understand the supreme court May 24 order basically says that the "option 2" map will be used for the 2022 general election, and (this is where we are all guessing) that after the full, explanatory decision is issued in S-18332, the court will lift the stay and allow the Board to get back to work.  Of course, depending on what the order says, any need for additional work by the Board could become moot.  

Q4.  Timing of any further decisions/orders:

     A.  One natural milestone is today's June 1 deadline for candidates to file.

     B.  Another possible milestone is after the November 2022 election

     C.  The urgency of the original decisions isn't as great now, however,

     D.  It would seem unreasonable to leave the Board and its staff dangling for too long.  Staff will look for other jobs and that would cripple the Board moving forward.  And Board members potentially could resign rather than leave their lives on hold that long.  That would raise issues of who would replace them.  The previous legislative appointers and the Supreme Court appointer have all departed those roles.  If the governor is not reelected, there would be protests over him appointing any new Board members.  This seems like a problem the Court could avoid by deciding sooner than later.  

A4.  You raise good points about timing, etc.  I'm sure the supreme court is aware of them as well.  

Conclusion

I like the part where Montgomery writes, "depending on what the order says, any need for additional work by the Board could become moot. "   

My look at the district changes and the maps tells me the Board doesn't have many options left and changing the maps yet again only confuses voters and makes candidates' lives more difficult.  It makes most sense to go with the 2020 interim map.  

I'm guessing the Court is taking advantage of having a little more time to rule.  And they also wanted to see how the Board would react.  The Board did as ordered.  There were a lot of issues raised in the trial and in the second round of challenges.  From whether ANCSA lines can be used as "local borders" when drawing district maps to clarifying how to avoid intentional gerrymandering and perhaps modifying the language the Board's attorney relied heavily on, that "everything within a borough or city boundaries is Socio-economically integrated."  And I personally would like them to make a distinction between contiguity in rural areas where there aren't roads and contiguity in urban areas where there are lots of roads.  

So, trying to craft all that language for future Boards to rely on and getting agreement among the Justices takes time.  But the other issues I raised - maintaining Board staff and the potentially nasty problems that could arise if a Board member resigned - also mean that the Court should get a decision out before too long.  

The first 'natural' deadline - June 1, 2022, when candidates must file to run for office in 2022 - is no past.  (Or will be by the time I get this posted.)  I would guess the next word from the Court will either be a decision with directions on what to do next (including possibly leaving 2022 interim plan in place) or a schedule for the Board so they don't hang in limbo too long and can plan their lives.

ARB Girdwood Challenge Schedule: - Oral Arguments May 12, Findings By May 16

The April 27, 2022  order from the judge says that all documents will be available at theAlaska Courts  most requested cases link.  Google will get you there so you don't have to come here to find the link.  

I'd note until today, the last document posted there was dated 4/27/2022.  They're having trouble keeping up.  That's why I only have this document today.  

There's one really big file that my computer is taking forever to open.  I just realized it's the video of the Board meetings.  That's already available on the Redistricting Board's website.  At least I'm assuming that will be the same content.  That page starts with all the public testimony, so scroll down till you get to April 15, 2022.

For those with visual impairments, whose devices cannot read images:

• Opening Briefs, Wednesday May 4
• Opposition Briefs, Sunday, May 8
• Reply Briefs, Wednesday May 11
• Superior Court to Issue Findings of Fact & Conclusions of Law by Monday, May 16, 2022
• The oral argument shall be held on the 12th day of May, 2022, via Zoom at 10 am

Redistricting Board Conflict: Expeditiously Or Take Time?

My issue today is timing.  

One conflict between the Republicans and the other two members of the Board*  is whether the Board should respond to the remand 'expeditiously' as Borromeo, Bahnke, and the public testifying in support of what is now Plan Option 2 (that pairs the two Eagle River House districts) prefer, or to slow the process down, give more time for people to think and come up with options, and use up all the time the Judge gave the Redistricting Board - about two weeks.  This second strategy has been supported by the Republicans and the members of the public opposed to pairing the Eagle River districts together.  

Why does this matter?   I had memories of what happened in the previous redistricting round.  Because of court challenges, the Board's final redistricting plan was not complete in time to be used for the election of 2012.  I recalled that what happened was that the original proclamation plan that had been ruled unconstitutional by the court was used.  

So I was concerned that that would happen this time if the Board didn't act expeditiously.  I asked the executive director of the Board and others involved with the process this year about the deadline for getting a completed map to the Division of Elections for the 2022 election.  What I heard was: The filing date is June 1 so the map needs to be done by May 1.  

If that were true, taking as much time as possible would give the Republicans the chance to delay long enough that the 2021 unconstitutional map would be used for the 2022 election.  

My next question was:  When does this new map they're working on become "the new map"?  If they vote for a new map next Thursday, is that the date of the new Proclamation Plan?  Or, since it was remanded to the Board by the Superior Court judge, does he have to approve it?  

I emailed the director of the Division of Elections and when I didn't get a response after two days, I called.  Someone named Donna said she didn't know the answer and would have Michaela get back to me.  I called again the next day after not hearing from Michaela and Donna told me she didn't know.  I asked, is there anyone who knows?  And she said, I told you that's all I know.  I asked her to transfer my question to the Director.  That was Thursday and I'm still waiting.  

When I first called Donna, I also emailed Merideth Montgomery who was listed as the media liaison at the appellate level of the State Court system.  She was the one I'd talked to about getting media credentials for the Supreme Court hearing.  She had approved that overnight and was very helpful when I arrived for the hearing back on March 18.  

I did get an email back from her the next day.  These were my questions:

"I'm trying to figure out

a) when the new 2022 plan needs to be officially adopted - I'm waiting for Div of Elections to get back to me on that - and

b) how this new plan becomes official.  If the Board adopts a new Proclamation Plan next week, does that become the new plan?  Or does Judge Thomas Matthews have to approve it before it becomes the official new plan?  Or is there some other option I haven't thought of?"  

I emailed my questions at 3pm on Wednesday April 6 and her response was dated 8:20am on April 7. 

"I would say for question (a) that the plan needs to be "official" by the candidate filing deadline for the next general election (I think this might be June 1).  

For question (b) my general response would be that a plan becomes "official" when litigation ends, which is technically the day after any appeal or petition could be filed.  For example, if the Board puts out another plan, and no one comes to the superior court within the time allowed under Civil Rule 90.8, the plan is final.   If a lawsuit is filed, then "officialness" occurs when all appeal avenues have been exhausted.  As to the second part of your question this specific case and whether Judge Matthews still needs to do anything, I'm not sure, because I don't know what his instructions were after the supreme court sent the case back.  I suspect, though, that he has maintained jurisdiction of the case, in which case, yes, he would need to approve before the new plan is final." 

I was confused.  If the candidates have to file by June 1, how can the deadline be June 1?  People need to know what their district is more than a few hours to file.  The Division of Elections surely has to have paperwork and maps ready for people coming in to file.  

Part b was confirming my concerns.  If the Board delays long enough - say til the  15th of April and the judge doesn't accept it (whatever that might entail - like remanding it again?) it could drag on into May.  If the judge accepts it, someone could wait 25 days and then file a court challenge putting it beyond the June 1 deadline.  And then would the unconstitutional plan adopted in November be the map for 2022?  Like what I recalled happening in 2012?

Fortunately, I blogged the 2011 process - as yesterday's post shows - so I could go to the index page (see the tabs up top, right below the orange banner).  In fact, I wrote yesterday's post because I was going through what happened in 2011 looking for the posts that talked about adopting the unconstitutional plan.  

What I found is a reminder that we shouldn't rely on our memories.  The following comes from my May 22, 2012 post 

Supreme Court Chooses Amended Proclamation Plan, With Original, Not New, SEast Districts

What actually happened was this:  The Board had been asked to redo the maps a couple of times and had now submitted several options to the Court.  

"The Supreme Court issued an order today in response to the Redistricting Board 

"It is ordered:

1.  The Amended Proclamation Plan adopted by the Redistricting Board on April 5, 2012, including the Southeast Alaska districts as configured in the plan of that date, shall serve as the redistricting plan for the 2012 elections."

So, after ordering the Board to reconfigure Southeast Alaska to only consider the state constitution and not the Voting Rights Act at all, the Board met and worked hard to comply, though they all said they were not pleased with the result.    Now the Supreme Court is telling them to just use the Amended Proclamation Plan with the Southeast districts as they were on April 5.

The reasoning?  The court was concerned about the numerous objections they got over the Southeast Alaska districts and that the Department of Justice wouldn't find the plan in compliance with the Voting Rights Act.

"The court has accepted the Southeast districts as configured in the plan of April 5, 2012 rather than the reconfiguration submitted by the Redistricting Board to the court on May 14, 2012 because of the numerous objections to the reconfigured districts that this court has received.  While the reconfigured districts may comply with the redistricting criteria of article VI. section 6 of the Alaska Constitution, there is a risk that the United States Department of Justice would decline to pre-clear them under the Voting Rights Act.  Notice of the failure of the Department of Justice to pre-clear the new districts would come so late in the 2012 election cycle that a great disruption to the election process would result.  In order to avoid this possibility, the court will not require the use of the May 15, 2012 reconfigured districts for the 2012 elections." 

Two of the judges dissented - Winfree and Stowers - who thought the May 15 districts should have been adopted."

(Here's a link to the ADN article on this.)

So I was wrong.  They did not adopt the original unconstitutional plan.  The Court took part of the revised plan and for Southeast they used an earlier revised version.  And the date of the post is May 22, 2012.  So that's only a little more than a week before the June 1 deadline.  

So what does that suggest for 2022?

1.  The deadline for getting a plan to the Division of Elections can be well past May 1.  

2.  The Supreme Court can tinker with the maps and decide they which one should be used.  

Can the Superior Court judge decide on a map to use?  I don't know, but if he did, I'm sure the losing side would immediately appeal to the Supreme Court.  

Other considerations:

Timing:  

1. All the House districts have been approved except for the ones affected by the Cantwell cutout, which the Board fixed and unanimously approved with no objections from the public.  That doesn't seem like a problem.  
2. All the Senate districts except, maybe six in Anchorage are settled.  
3. So most of the map is essentially finished and the potential candidates for those districts know what their districts will be.  That can be passed on to the Division of Elections by the time Judge Thomas Matthews gets the Board's decision.  

What happens if the Judge doesn't like the changes to Senate Seat K?

1.  He could send it back again with new directions

2.  He could fix the map himself. 

3.  Either way there could be an appeal to the Supreme Court.  

It seems there is enough time to send it back with instructions and a deadline.  If the Court makes changes to the map for the 2022 election, I suspect it has to be backed by the Supreme Court.  

From the Board's discussions this week, I think that at least member Simpson would comply with a Supreme Court instruction.  But that's a just a guess.  But he spoke about following the law on a couple of occasions - Binkley's decision to vote no on the Cantwell revision because he disagreed with the Court's ruling and when he voted no on accepting the Craig Campbell proposed Senate K fix that would have required changing a House seat.  

These are the potential next steps.  It appears that the courts can take their own action to determine what map the Division of Elections will use and that there is enough time to get a map for the regular primary in August and the November 2022 election.  

I would just add that Andrew Gray testified today and made the point that there are no negative consequences for trying to politically gerrymander the map.  It could go through without a lawsuit. But even if a lawsuit were filed, and successful, there are no negative consequences to any members of the Board for trying to abuse the process.

* The two other members are not identified with any particular party.  Whether they have leanings - well they aren't leaning with the Republicans on the Board on the issue of political gerrymandering that the state Supreme Court found.  For some of the people testifying, that seems to automatically make then lean Democratic.  But there are other options.  They don't have to lean toward a party.  They could  lean toward other issues and one that they appear to take seriously is the Alaska Constitution and the idea that the interests of ethnically diverse (I guess that's a euphemism mainly for non-White, but also includes non-Christian, and LGBTQ, and people with disabilities, etc.) should have their voices heard in the legislature.  

1000 Years Of Joys And Sorrows - Ai Weiwei/ Japan Invades China 1937

As Russia moves into Ukraine, it seems that Ai Weiwei's description of the Japanese invasion of China in 1937 seems an appropriate reading.  Not just for the people of Ukraine, but for the people
of the world.  If Putin is able to 'take' Ukraine, what's next?  And what does this foretell about future relations between Europe, Russia, and the US, not to mention China, and the rest of the world?  

In July 1937.  Ai Weiwei's father Ai Qing was a young poet who had started getting noticed.  Three months earlier, the wife had their first baby on the day the Japanese began their invasion of China.  They are trying to keep ahead of the Japanese army and have arrived at Hangzhou.  Hangzhou is a little west of Shanghai and is known for its beautiful West Lake which is now a World Heritage Site.

Ai Weiwei writes:  

"The West Lake was unchanged, hazy and indistinct.  It seemed to him that the locals were drifting through life, still clinging to an illusory notion of leisure.  The onset of war had failed to shock Hangzhou;  while the fate of the nation hung in the balance, people simply continue with their routines. 'I cannot pretend to love Hangzhou," Father would soon confess.  'Like so many cities in China, it is crammed with narrow-minded, selfish residents,  with complacent and vulgar office workers, low-level officials accustomed to currying favor, and cultural types who make a hobby of hyping things up. They commonly think of themselves as living in unparalleled happiness, as though lounging in their mother's lap.'  He would write these words at the end of the year, when news came to him that Hangzhou had fallen, after he and his family had escaped to Wuhan." (p. 51)

Sound familiar?  

Ai Qing, who had moved his family further west, was once again faced with an advancing army.  This is surely happening right now in parts of Ukraine.

"When they arrived at Jinhua Railway Station at eight o'clock in the morning, wounded soldiers, freshly evacuated from battlefield, lay strewn along the platform.  One of the soldiers, a faint gray light shining in his eyes, told Father that hospitals in the area were no longer taking in casualties.  Some had covered themselves with straw for warmth, while others threw straw in a heap and set fire to it to warm up inside dirty bedrolls.  The fight had disrupted the normal train schedule, and in the confusion it was unclear whether rail service would even continue.  Ticket sales had been halted, and if a train came in everyone simply piled in,whether they had tickets or not."(pp 51-52)

Later, he writes about poetry and democracy.  Ideas to contemplate as those in power aim to abolish truth with mistruths.  

"'Poetry today ought to be a bold experiment in the democratic spirit,' he declared, ' and the future of poetry is inseparable from the future of democratic politics.  A constitution matters even more to poets than to others, because only when the right to expression guaranteed can one give voice to the hopes of people at large, and only then is progress possible.  To suppress the voices of the people is the cruelest form of violence.'  Eighty years later, his faith in poetry's freedom's ambassador has yet to find vindication in China."

For those of you unfamiliar with Ai Weiwei, he's probably modern China's best known artist, though he's living in exile now.  Here's a short bio.

I haven't seen much of Ai Weiwei's art in person.  But I did see this tree at an exhibition of modern Chinese artists at the Louis Vuitton museum in Paris five or six years ago. The link describes it somewhat.  

The Trevor Noah interview below doesn't tell you much about his art or life, but it's worth watching as we deal with an increasingly oppressive takeover of the Republican party.   

I have to add, reading a good book is so much more satisfying that scanning Twitter or other online collections of alarmism and distraction.  

First Draft Of Suggestions For Next Alaska Redistricting Board

 

Lessons

Starting from scratch every ten years is hard Need way to maintain institutional memory Start much earlier  Get professional help Don't require local areas to make 40 district maps Do map making sessions with public at public hearings Enforce:  board members not selected based on party affiliation Guidance to Board on Alaska constitution, laws, and court decisions regarding redistricting should be public Better rules about incumbents:  Not protecting incumbents should be paired with not target incumbents

I think it might be helpful for everyone involved in this process to think about what happened and write up some lessons learned for the next Board.  People playing different roles will see different things.  

So I'm starting my list now before I forget things.  This won't be the 'final report' but at least I'm doing a first draft

What have I learned from this round of redistricting?

Maybe I should start with lessons learned from the 2010 round of redistricting:  

1.  We aren't done yet.  If the courts agree with any of the lawsuits, the Board will be reconvened and begin mapping again. It will be easy if just Skagway or East Anchorage needs to be changed.  Calista has the potential to have wide ranging statewide impacts if Tyonek is pushed back into the Kenai Peninsula Borough.  The Valdez-Mat-Su complaints will require significant remapping and strong opposition from Doyon which worked hard to get all its communities and Ahtna communities into one giant (physically) district.  

2.  The 2021 Proclamation Plan will probably be the plan for the 2022 election.  June 1 is the deadline for state candidates to file for office.  I wasn't exactly sure the timeline so I checked with Board executive director.  His response was: 

"We expect a decision on Feb 15. The timeline is that appeals have to be filed in 2 business days. So if the decision comes Tuesday the 15th, appeals are due by Thursday the 17th. The court will convene a status hearing, likely by Monday, Feb 21.  Appeal briefs are due 10 days later, or about March 2. Appellee’s response is due 5 days after that, and then the court will likely hold an oral argument the week of the 14th or 21st of March. If the court sticks to the appellate rule, it will decide the appeal by April 1.

I think the idea here is that an April 1ish decision would give the Board some time to potentially resolve a remand order (make a change) with enough time for Div Elections to still do their job properly leading up to June 1.  But of course, if it's a complicated remand (like start over), that could be very difficult."

And I would add, if the revision is challenged, there probably won't be time and the new Proclamation Plan districts (the ones being challenged) would be used.   

3.  The Board might want to start mapping new options right now.  Let me rephrase that because the Board does NOT want to do that.  Why do possibly unnecessary work?  But they could get started before the final court verdicts are in.  At the very least they will know what the Superior Court decision is by Wednesday.  And they have a meeting already set for Wednesday at 11am.  The hardest adjustment will be, as I said above, if the Mat-Su/Valdez and Calista cases win.  The other two they should be able to fix easily.  But to the extent that Board members have vested interests in the existing maps, that's another reason to delay so that the current Proclamation Plan goes into effect for the 2022 election.  

Suggestions For The Next Board (The Legislature May Have To Help With This)

1.  Starting from scratch every ten years is difficult -  To rev up a brand new organization every ten years has some advantages but also some real problems.  The Board members don't get appointed until the decennial census year.  That was 2020 this round.  They then have to find office space, get equipment, hire administrative staff, hire legal counsel, learn all the rules, learn the mapping technology, figure out how to do the public participation road show (I really don't like that term, it makes it sound like it's superficial and it emphasizes the "show" part and not the listen part.  

On the plus side, you get fresh perspectives and new ideas.  But there has to be better continuity and some sort of institutional memory established.  

2. There should be a way to maintain some institutional memory - Perhaps having a state agency that's responsible for keeping up the Board's website, and ideally an employee who was involved with the Board who can help get basic things done for the Board.  \

The last Board's website disappeared.   And even it it had been kept alive, much of the material would have disappeared because it was on various State websites which got cleared when new governors got elected.  The best available record for the public of what happened in the 2010 cycle is my redistricting page with an annotated index of all my posts.  And a lot of my links are bad because the Board's documents are gone.   That isn't how it should be for an important government agency.  

Peter Torkelson tells me he's doing what he can to make sure the current Board's website is preserved. But that responsibility should be institutionalized, not just depend on a former Board employee. 

3.  Start much earlier - This current Board should leave a todo list and a time schedule for the next Board and even meet with them early on.  Steve Colligan, Mat-Su's redistricting/mapping consultant said that they began planning for redistricting five years ago.  They were keeping up with changes in the Census Bureau's advances in technology and data.  They started mapping ideal districts early.  Sure, you're working in a  bit of a vacuum because you don't know the ideal size of a district.  But by the time you get that information, you've spent a lot of time working the mapping software and overcoming technical obstacles.  He also said he has highly skilled GIS people to do much of the work.  This Board got appointed in the second half of 2020.  They didn't start playing with the software until July 2021.  They may have learned some basics quickly, but they are still amateurs. 

4.  Get professional help - Even if the software gets much easier to use in the next ten years, Board members learning it on-the-job is not a good model.  I know the Board members believe they got proficient and did a good job, and that's probably true.  But a trained, skilled GIS person knows a lot of tricks hidden in the software and lots of shortcuts.  I suspect Board member Simpson had the right approach - he says he didn't actually.  I've taken a couple of semester long university level classes in Photoshop and I can do a number of things, but the software has capabilities way beyond my level.  

5.   Don't require local areas to make 40 district maps - This Board's attorney explained in court that they required local governments to do whole 40 district maps, not just do maps of their area.  The justification was that it's easy to just do your area, but that you have to the whole state to see how your boundaries affect other districts.  That's logical, but it's also an easy excuse to not pay attention to what local people do.  It's the Board's job to listen to what local areas want and to try to incorporate them into a whole state map, not local communities.  

6.  Do map making sessions with public at public hearings where the Board techs work with local residents to try to fix boundaries that work with other areas' concerns.

7.  Enforce:  board members not selected based on party affiliation

8.  Guidance to Board on Alaska constitution, laws, and court decisions regarding redistricting should be public

9.  Better rules about incumbents:  This round's Board made a rule not to protect incumbents.  That's fine, but only if they also have a rule not to target incumbents.  

My granddaughter has a serious sibling rivalry with my laptops.  So this is going to have to do for now. This is just a first draft.  I'll also try to make a list of things the Board did well later.  And I'd encourage Board members, staff, the public, and others to make suggestions too.

Today Is The Last Time January 6 Was Less Than A Year Away [UPDATED]

Today is the last time we can say, it hasn't been a year yet since January 6.  Many people are criticizing Attorney General Merrick Garland because there haven't been any big names arrested or tried yet.  Garland spoke today on this, but I see people calling for action in addition to words.

Attorney General Merrick Garland vowed on Wednesday that the Justice Department would pursue its inquiry into the Capitol riot “at any level,” saying he would defend democratic institutions from attack and threats of violence. https://t.co/Ki1Jd1fCaK pic.twitter.com/AZZEr1KXm7

— The New York Times (@nytimes) January 5, 2022

My biggest concern is "as long as it takes" maybe longer than he'll be attorney general.

I wasn't alive when Pearl Harbor was attacked, but from my parents' account, it was one of those life changing days.  Before that Sunday, there was a strong anti-war movement, in part fueled by people who supported Hitler.

The country shut down for several days after John Kennedy was shot and people were glued to their televisions.  The commissions that studied the assassination seemed to last forever and it seems like the term 'conspiracy theory' came out of that experience. [It appears that that was, indeed the case.  My problem with the term is that there are, in fact, conspiracies.  But now the term itself applies "crackpot" or "delusional" even.]

9/11 was an even more shocking event.  As people began to realize the first plane into the World Trade Tower wasn't an accident.  And that there were more planes out there.  Air travel was shut down for several days.  It was quiet.  The only flights were high ranking Saudis that George W. Bush allowed to leave - even though 15 of the 19 plotters were Saudis.  And there were, as of Sept 11, 2021, still 39 prisoners still at Guantanamo.  

Here's from a 2010 Report on 9/11 from the New York University School of Law:

Main Conclusion:

Since 9/11, the Department of Justice’s understanding of terrorism cases has grown exponentially in terms of its patience in building a case, its understanding of the threats posed by terrorists, and its willingness to focus on terrorism and other serious charges. The early practice of making high-profile arrests, while prosecuting few terrorism charges – which brought into question the capacity of the DoJ to try terrorism-related crimes – has largely been addressed.

Other conclusions follow as well:

• The number of announced arrests has declined and the proportion of indictments and convictions has steadily grown.

• Most prosecutions of international terrorists involved no allegations of specific targets, and where specific targets were alleged, the targets were usually outside the U.S.

• The DoJ effected a successful strategy for convincing defendants to cooperate. Three notable examples of cooperators are Iyman Faris, whose cooperation may have ultimately led to six other high-level prosecutions; Mohammed Mansour Jabarah, who provided details on al Qaeda training camps and methods; and Bryant Neal Vinas, who reportedly began cooperating immediately upon arrest, providing information leading to overseas prosecutions and domestic alerts.

• Neither Miranda requirements nor the challenges of preserving classified information have proven to be insurmountable obstacles in terrorism cases. The rate of conviction, nearly nine in 10, compares favorably to those involving other serious charges.

This is all to put some perspective on how long these things have taken in the past.  

Right now there is a sense of urgency.  A belief that serious justice has to take place before next December when members of Congress are sworn in. Because 

• people fear Republican voter suppression and gerrymandering will make it hard for Democrats to keep Congress
• people fear Trump led challenges to the elections if Democrats win
• and with a new Congressional majority, the Congressional investigation will end
• and even though Biden has two more years after the 2022 election, a Republican Congress would attack whatever the attorney general does relentlessly

More than any time in my lifetime - and I've been around a while - our democracy is in serious danger. (Yes, people will tell you we already don't have a democracy.  But democracy isn't binary - it isn't either we do or don't have one.  It's a continuum from very democratic to not at all.)

This is the year that people who have sat back and let other folks get involved in politics will need to get out of their comfort zone and work to elect people who believe in democracy.  Germany did come back as a democracy after WWII, but a lot of people died before that happened.  

I hope I'm wrong.  I hope the family members of people who died of COVID will feel that Republicans betrayed them and wake up. I hope those who I hope that Trump's influence over Congressional Republicans weakens.  I hope those who stormed the Capitol a year ago tomorrow are sobered up by their trials.  I hope Congress passes a meaningful Voting Rights bill that overrides that many attempts to subvert our elections in November. 

But I'm not going to count on all that happening.  We've got a lot to lose.  More than most people imagine.  Things people take for granted.  But I've lived in non-democratic countries and I know how good we've had things and how bad it can get.  

So I beseech my readers to find ways they can become actively involved in making sure what we take for granted isn't snatched away.  

Some key areas where you can give money, time, and ideas include organizations that:

• Fight for fair elections
• Fight disinformation 
• Fight dismantling foundational institutions (Anchorage folks are seeing this happening first hand - libraries, health departments, universities, elections, etc.)
• Fight mob intimidation of elected officials and citizens

This list comes from an organization called Protect Democracy.  I don't know them personally, but the list (and I only picked some things) is right on the mark.

Readers:  let me know organizations in Anchorage, in Alaska, and nationwide that are fighting the good fight.  

You've got about ten months left to the November 2022 election.  Use every day as if someone were trying to take away your democracy.  Because someone is.  

[UPDATE:  I got some suggestions of organizations by email:

Postcards to Voters  

"Postcards to Voters are friendly, handwritten reminders from volunteers to targeted voters giving Democrats a winning edge in close, key races coast to coast."

Field Team 6

"STRATEGY

We meet people where they are – via phone, text, postcard, social media, and soon at in-person, Covid-safe voter drives! 

 

Armed with Voterizer.org, the only custom-built app just for registering Democrats, we track down every good-hearted eligible voter we can, and get them on the voter rolls where they belong. And sign them up to vote from home!"

Chop Wood, Carry Water  - This one has daily reminders of things to do to support democracy.

UnFox My Cable Box

"Pay for cable or satellite TV? You’re subsidizing Fox News whether you watch it or not.

Your cable or satellite TV provider pays a subscriber fee to carry Fox News. That cost is passed directly on to YOU.

Every network charges cable and satellite providers a small fee per subscriber; the one for Fox News is extraordinarily high. A typical household pays Fox News almost $2 per month—about $20 per year— via their cable or satellite provider, regardless of whether they actually watch the channel.

In 2021, a wave of big contracts between Fox News and TV providers for subscriber fees are set to expire. These contracts make up about 65% if Fox News’ subscriber fee revenue. If we want to stop paying the Fox News “tax,” now is the time to act."

It says new contracts in 2021, but if you do get cable and pay for FOX even if you don't watch it, you should read this.  

 

Swing Left

"Find ways to make a real impact on the elections that determine the balance of power in our country."]

What's The Big Deal About 2022? It's An Arbitrary Number. Think Bigger

A goal of this blog is to get people to break out of patterns of thinking so they can see the world or some portion of the world differently.  To step back and recognize '"truths" they believe as actually just one way of knowing the world.  

So New Years Day seems a good time to meddle with our concept of being in 2022.  Because for Jews New Years happened several months ago and it is 5782.  For Chinese, New Year is a month off and it will be 4730.  For Thais the New Year will begin in Aril and they will usher in the year  2565.

It's good to have rituals around time.  They help us step back and think about what we've done over a period of time. Teaching is a great profession because you get to start fresh with each semester - it's not just one continuous long slog.  Birthdays help us reflect as do anniversaries.  Or the changing seasons.  

But it's also important to remember how arbitrary the numbers can be.  There is some connection to the natural world.  365 days is close to how long it takes the earth to revolve around the sun.  But other cultures pin their years to the moon.  But much about time is a human decision about how things should be.  

Calendars Through The Ages tells us:

Before today’s Gregorian calendar was adopted, the older Julian calendar was used. It was admirably close to the actual length of the year, as it turns out, but the Julian calendar was not so perfect that it didn’t slowly shift off track over the following centuries. But, hundreds of years later, monks were the only ones with any free time for scholarly pursuits – and they were discouraged from thinking about the matter of "secular time" for any reason beyond figuring out when to observe Easter. In the Middle Ages, the study of the measure of time was first viewed as prying too deeply into God’s own affairs – and later thought of as a lowly, mechanical study, unworthy of serious contemplation.

As a result, it wasn’t until 1582, by which time Caesar’s calendar had drifted a full 10 days off course, that Pope Gregory XIII (1502 - 1585) finally reformed the Julian calendar. Ironically, by the time the Catholic church buckled under the weight of the scientific reasoning that pointed out the error, it had lost much of its power to implement the fix. Protestant tract writers responded to Gregory’s calendar by calling him the "Roman Antichrist" and claiming that its real purpose was to keep true Christians from worshiping on the correct days. The "new" calendar, as we know it today, was not adopted uniformly across Europe until well into the 18th century.

The same site tells us about the beginning of counting the years.  

"Was Jesus born in the year 0?

No.

There are two reasons for this:

There is no year 0.

Jesus was born before 4 B.C.E.

The concept of a year "zero" is a modern myth (but a very popular one). In our calendar, C.E. 1 follows immediately after 1 B.C.E. with no intervening year zero. So a person who was born in 10 B.C.E. and died in C.E. 10, would have died at the age of 19, not 20.

Furthermore, as described in section 2.14, our year reckoning was established by Dionysius Exiguus in the 6th century. Dionysius let the year C.E. 1 start one week after what he believed to be Jesus’ birthday. But Dionysius’ calculations were wrong. The Gospel of Matthew tells us that Jesus was born under the reign of king Herod the Great, who died in 4 B.C.E.. It is likely that Jesus was actually born around 7 B.C.E.. The date of his birth is unknown; it may or may not be 25 December."

 I'd note for those Christians who feel they are discriminated against, most of the world uses the Western calendar that is roughly based on the birth of Christ.  Even if they also have calendars based on other events.  

Let's look at some other New Years from different cultures.

Indian New Year Diwali

"One of the most celebrated Indian New Year is 'Diwali' ', which means 'the celebration of lights'. Deepavali symbolize the starting of the Hindu New Year which is generally the main holiday of India. This festival is celebrated in the month of Kartika, which generally falls in the October. Diwali is an holiday in India, Nepal, Guyana, Malaysia and Singapore. Even though, it is a Hindu festival and has deep Hindu mythology connected with its origin, people from different religions also celebrate Diwali. As the name implies, Diwali is celebrated with lights, lamps and fireworks. The main reason behind Diwali celebration is to get away of the evil, which is symbolized as darkness, and to follow the paths of virtue."

From The Heart of Hinduism:

"Various eras are used for numbering the years; the most common are the Vikrami Era, beginning with the coronation of King Vikram-aditya in 57 BCE and the Shaka Era, counting from 78 CE. In rituals the priest often announces the dates according to KaliYuga, (see Kala: Time). For these three systems, the year 2000 corresponds to 2057, 1922, and 5102 respectively, though the last figure is subject to some debate."

Telugu New Year

"is known as Ugadi, which is derived from "Yuga Aadi" means New Age. According to the Hindu mythology Lord Brahma has created universe on Chaitra Shuddha Prathpade thus Telugu New Year is celebrated on Chaitra Shuddha Prathipade which is also first day of the lunar calendar. Telugu New Year is bright full moon day of the first month of spring."

Enkutatash – Ethiopian New Year!

"Every year on September 11, Ethiopians celebrate their New Year. The holiday is called “Enkutatash,” which literary means the “gift of jewels.” This naming came from the legendary visit of the Ethiopian Queen Sheba to that of King Solomon of Jerusalem back in 98 BC. During her visit, this famous queen of Ethiopia brought the king a collection of “jewels.” Upon her return home, the queen was restocked with a new supply of “enku” (jewels) for her treasury.

Ethiopians called the New Year “Enkutatash” because the period the queen arrived back to Ethiopia coincided with the New Year’s celebration in September. Celebrating the New Year in September, however, is originally connected to the Bible as it is the period that God created the Heavens and the Earth and so this period should be the beginning of a New Year."

Songkran - Thailand  From a post I did in 2008 when we were living in Chiangmai.

Chiang Mai.com gives an overview of the holiday of Songkran (the link is no longer any good)

"The family sprinkling scented water from silver bowls on a Buddha image is a ritual practiced by all Thais in on the third day of Songkran, known as Wan Payawan. This is the first official day of the New Year and on this day people cleanse the Buddha images in their homes as well as in the temples with scented water. The family is dressed in traditional Thai costume and wearing leis of jasmine flower buds. The water is scented with the petals of this flower."

I'd recommend visiting the post this comes from to see how it goes from a reverend washing of Buddhas to a free for all water fight in the streets.  

She knows I have a camera, so she's offering to douse me just a little bit.  It ended up down my back.  There are over three posts on our Songkran in Chiangmai.

And there's a Part 2 and Part 3 as well that go into different aspects of Songkran.

This year in Thailand the new year will be 2565

The Burmese New Year is related to the Thai New Year.

"Burma’s most important festival

Taking place from April 13 to 16 each year, the Buddhist festival of Thingyan is celebrated over four to five days, culminating on the Lunar New Year Day.

Water throwing is the distinguishing feature of this festival, and you’ll find people splashing water at each other almost everywhere in the country.

Thingyan traces its roots back to a Hindu myth. The King of Brahmas called Arsi, lost a wager to the King of Devas, Thagya Min, who decapitated Arsi. Miraculously, the head of an elephant was placed onto Arsi’s body, and he then became Ganesha.

The Hindu god was so powerful that if his head was thrown into the sea it would dry up immediately. If it were thrown onto land it would be scorched. If it were thrown up into the air the sky would burst into flames.

Thagya Min therefore ordained that Ganesha’s head be carried by one princess after another who took turns for a year each. The new year thus has come to signify the this annual change of hands."

Chinese New Year:  (This is a great site, with almost everything you could want to know about Chinese New Year)

"Chinese New Year is celebrated by more than 20% of the world. It’s the most important holiday in China and to Chinese people all over. Here are 21 interesting facts that you probably didn’t know about Chinese New Year.

1. Chinese New Year is also known as the Spring Festival

In China, you’ll hear it being called chunjie (春节), or the Spring Festival. It’s still very wintry, but the holiday marks the end of the coldest days. People welcome spring and what it brings along: planting and harvests, new beginnings and fresh starts."

This year it begins on February 1, 2022 and it will be the Year of the Tiger.  It will be the year 4720.

Jewish New Year - The ten days between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur are very holy days - time to reflect on one's failings and to ask for forgiveness from God and from those you have wronged.  It's also a time to forgive those who have wronged you.  It's currently the year 5782.

You can see more here.

So let's not get so hung up on 2022.  Today is just another day, following yesterday.  Let's be sensible in dealing with COVID. 

1.   Let's work hard to preserve the US democracy - with time and with money. Write your members of Congress.  Help those organizations fighting voter suppression.  And figure out who is doing Stacy Abrams work in your state.  And if nobody is, find some partners and do it yourself.   

2.  And let's also do everything we can to take national and world action to minimize the impacts of climate change.  For that, I'd suggest connecting with Citizens Climate Lobby, the most focused and efficient organization I know of.  

3.  Be kind, but not a sucker.  Know your power - don't underestimate it or overestimate it - and stand up to bullies when that's feasible and protect others who are targeted.  Take a self defense class if you feel threatened.  Our former president has given his followers to act on their worst impulses.  But don't give up.  The super power I wish on everyone is the power to make everyone around you feel loved.  

 

Sun And Rain In LA Keep Me Distracted

 There's been a lot of rain here in LA.  For LA anyway.  It was one day rain, the next day sun, then rain.  We just finished two days of steady rain, but today the sun's out.  But with all this, trying to be on vacation yet get things done and gramping, I totally missed Wednesday's hearing.  And while the Superior court has it live on video, they don't leave the recorded (was it recorded?) video up for people to see later.  But they're still talking technical, procedural stuff.  Though listening in would have given me some hints of things might go.  Next meeting is next Wednesday.  But meanwhile here's some LA.

Sunday was sunny and I went for a bike ride with B, an Alaskan friend who's moved down here to be near kids and grandkids.  He took this picture of a house in Marina Del Rey.  This is NOT a typical house.  

It had this sign in the lower left.

Some gentlemen fishing at the boat docks in Marina del Rey.  

Monday morning it was still sunny, but clouds were rolling in as we went to Will Rogers State Park for a hike back into my earlier life.  This is where Will Rogers lived.  His house is there and there's a polo field that's active on weekends.  And also a trail that loops around the property.  

The rain was a fine mist by this point.

All tree bark fascinates me, but eucalyptus trees hold a special place

Here's Will Roger's stable/barn in the wet Monday.

And here it is when it was finished in 1927.

One of the things I like about this park is that it's surrounded by chaparral covered hills.  A smell that takes me back to childhood.  I think it might be why I like David Hockney's swimming pool picture, which I once had to recreate digitally in a computer art class I took.  It was painted at a house not far from here with hills like this in the background. I want you all to know I really liked this picture well before it sold for $100 million.  

In the past when I've hiked this trail I've seen coveys of California quail.  But not this time. 

It was raining when we went to the cemetery to put flowers on my mom's and other family members' graves.  When my brother died young, my mother went to the cemetery weekly to keep fresh flowers from her garden on his space on the wall.  My mom was a lab technician and X-ray technician and so she filled test tubes with water and taped them to the wall.  Many years later, the cemetery got plastic vases and put holders up on the wall.  My inlaws and step father were added to the wall, and more recently my mom.  So when I'm down here I gather flowers - mainly epidendrum, what my mom called 'poor man's orchids' and jade plants - because the last longer.  

A couple of years ago I filled some of the vases with soil and put  jade plant in.  When we came again nearly a year later, they were still alive.  One of the cemetery caretakers was making sure they got water.  Because of COVID I wasn't sure what I would find this time.  We haven't been there for almost two years.  But I shouldn't have worried.  Each vase had a healthy jade plant, one had a different succulent, alive and thriving.  We added the flowers we brought and I have to leave a thank you for the caregiver before we return to Anchorage.

Nearby my mom's spot is this one.  

Yesterday it was raining again.  I had an appointment in Beverly Hills with the eye doctor who's been checking my contacts since 1975.  I took my granddaughter with me and she had a number of questions.  

They had a COVID testing site in the parking lot.  

And most of the nearby shops (but not all) had very COVID warnings.

oops, this one needed higher res, sorry

These were near where we parked the car and I thought they were pretty.  Picture didn't turn out that well.

After we went by a park where both my wife and I attended summer camp.  We didn't know each other then at all.  We only found out we'd both been there when I found an old camp picture in my mom's garage, after she died.  I should my wife my 8 year old self and she then pointed out her own image on the picture.  

They've take out most of the features that made it a wonderful place for kids - different spaces separated by different kinds of bushes and a swimming pool on one end.  The pool is gone - the the playground there was blocked off yesterday by tape because there were several inches of water.  This trail was the nicest part of the park now - and it was a giant puddle.  Basically they wiped out all the park and put in two baseball diamonds.  

And driving home down Olympic, the clouds were playing hide and seek with the tops of the buildings in Century City.  

Today's sunny again, and so we have a bike ride scheduled.  We got the brakes fixed on my granddaughter's bike and she wants to use it.