LA Shots, Discussion With Waiter At Persian Restaurant [Updated]

Here's from a couple of nights ago.

We've had sunny days and I have not being able to ride the bike.  I can pretend to walk normally now, but the right knee is still bigger than the left.  But now when I do something wrong, I feel pressure instead of serious pain.  The pressure is a buffer that stops me before I get to the pain part.  And I can move the leg more - obviously enough to walk.  Getting into the car required some thinking about how to position my leg to get it in.

It also means that I let J do the driving today, which means I can take pictures.  I had an eye appointment.

We could see the mountains in the distance, but the sun seems to have gotten rid of most of the snow we saw last week.

The doctor's office is in Beverly Hill, but it still costs much less than it would in Anchorage.  Besides, I've been going to this doctor since 1975 as he reminded me today.  "You're one of my oldest, no I should say, longest regular patients."  We were both young back then and we've seen each other once every one to three years or so all this time.  We talked about grandchildren today. He has a new granddaughter as of Saturday.  And I'm also one of the most distant patients he has.  Last year when I asked him how long he'd be practicing, he said as long as you keep coming, I'll be here.  We'll see.  Here's what my eyes looked like today.  Or one of them at least.

This vehicle was in the parking lot behind his office.  Is there any hope for global warming when people have enough money they can buy toys like this and they do instead of working to slow down global warming?  But, of course, I know nothing about the owner of this vehicle.  I'm creating a persona based on big wheels.

On the way back we decided to go to a Persian restaurant in Westwood.

While I eat very little meat, Persian lamb shank once a year is one of the exceptions.  And as I was paying, I realized this was a good chance to ask someone with Iranian connections about the US assassination of General Soleimani.  While I kept hearing quotes about what an evil man he is and how many Americans and civilians he's killed, I thought about how the US helped get rid of President Allende in Chile in 1973.  And all the civilians who have died as 'collateral damage' of US strikes in the Middle East.

The waiter said they weren't allowed to talk about this in the restaurant.  And then he did.  I didn't tell him I was a blogger or ask for permission to post his comments, because I didn't think about it until we left.  So I won't.  But did just recently get back from visiting his family and he's worried things will get worse for them because things will get worse for everyone.


Here's the window of a bakery we passed.

And a Persian book store.

Meanwhile I checked and the subways in Santiago are working again, but protestors are still out on the streets.  I guess since they aren't being violent, we don't hear any more about it.

[UPDATED Jan 4, 2020 12:20 am:   Since I shortchanged you on the discussion fo the assassination, I thought I'd offer this insight from Chris Hedges.  Hedges resigned from the NYTimes after an award winning career covering the Middle East and other key areas.  He's way out of the mainstream, but that's because he isn't afraid to take on the taboo subjects of American journalism.  Here's the link to the article  and an excerpt:

"The targeting of Soleimani, who was killed by a MQ-9 Reaper drone that fired missiles into his convoy as he was leaving the Baghdad airport, also took the life of Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, the deputy commander of Iran-backed militias in Iraq known as the Popular Mobilization Forces, along with other Iraqi Shiite militia leaders. The strike may temporarily bolster the political fortunes of the two beleaguered architects of the assassination, Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, but it is an act of imperial suicide by the United States. There can be no positive outcome. It opens up the possibility of an Armageddon-type scenario relished by the lunatic fringes of the Christian right.
A war with Iran would see it use its Chinese-supplied anti-ship missiles, mines and coastal artillery to shut down the Strait of Hormuz, which is the corridor for 20% of the world’s oil supply. Oil prices would double, perhaps triple, devastating the global economy. The retaliatory strikes by Iran on Israel, as well as on American military installations in Iraq, would leave hundreds, maybe thousands, of dead."] 

Paywalls And Sharing Good Articles - Immigration Activists, Tribal Contracting, War Is Hell, Flawed Humans,Why Trump Won't Win

Some thoughts raised by things I've recently read.  But first a note on paywalls.

I understand that newspapers want online readers to spend some money for the privilege of reading.  Newspapers are struggling to stay alive.  Many have not survived.

Early on - maybe ten years or more ago - there was a proposal for newspapers to have a collective fee, so that people didn't have to pay every time they visited an online newspaper.  You could buy a pass for a group of them and they could figure out how to divide the money based on hits from subscribers.  That doesn't seem to have happened.  I have an online subscription to the LA Times and the Anchorage Daily News.  I rarely read anything any more in the NY Times or the Washington Post.

This is problematic particularly for journalists and researchers who need to look at lots of things.  This was noted on Recall Elections Blog as a problem in tracking the various recalls around the country.

I say all this because a number of links here go to the LA Times and many of you may not be able to get direct access to the articles.  I'd note you can probably get there via your public library or find a reprint somewhere online.  Try different browsers, try private browsing, remove media cookies from your computer.


Immigration - LATimes article on Washington State activists making it harder for ICE - King County banned flights taking immigrants out of the state, so they have to go to Yakima, where protestors show up for flights.

What is happening on this front in Alaska?  Could Anchorage ban the use of our airport for these activities?


Tribal Membership And Minority Contracts - Giving federal contracts to businesses that claim Native American tribal status that is recognized by the state (Alabama in the article) but not by the feds.  Only 5% of federal contracts are set aside for minority/women owned businesses, but it's a lot of money.

Article says nearly $1billion has gone to Alabama companies with dubious claims to Native heritage.

Alaska Native corporations have done well with these contracts.  However, I would like to see more investigation on the structure of some of these.  Are they simply ways for larger white owned companies to buy Native participation so they can get the contracts?


When War is Hell In Movies

Lots of war movies are patriotic calls to support the current war.  But an LA Times article on the new film 1917 notes:

"WWII films tend to be stories of victory, BUT WWI movies SHOW the horrors OF A SEEMINGLY SENSELESS FIGHT."

Their list of notable realistic WWI movies turns out to include nearly all non-Hollywood films.  Would the misery of actual warfare on screen discourage potential enlistees?  Probably not those 17 and 18 year olds who are desperate to get out of the house and out of school and be heroes.

Or maybe all 17 year old boys should get school assignments to visit vets with various long term war related illnesses to find out what war does and what the Department of Veterans Affairs doesn't do to help.


Flawed Humans

Queen and Slim writer Lena Waithe, again in the LA Times, writes about how she got the idea and then wrote the film.  This sentence struck me:

"And, ultimately, my deep love and admiration for these two very flawed and extremely human characters never failed to pull me through. And I think it’s because for me Queen and Slim aren’t just characters in a movie, they’re two fictitious people that represent all of us."

One of the tropes that dominate how we see the world is the notion of right and wrong.  The American justice system is based on finding out whether someone is guilty or not guilty.  The Republican response to the impeachment of Trump has been to point out other people as guilty - most notably Hunter Biden, but many others as well.
But this quote adds nuance to the idea.  These two people have killed a cop in self defense.  But being black, the fear they won't be believed.  So now they actually break the law by fleeing.  And presumably, as the movie progressive, we learn more about their flaws.  We all have flaws.  We're all guilty of something.  Christianity has based a whole religion on that notion.  

This quote reminds us that even though they are flawed, they need to be judged by their actions, not their flaws.  It also reminds me that privilege (whether it's white privilege or any other privilege) means that you're more likely to be forgiven for your flaws.  We know, for instance, that young people of color are more likely to be sent to a detention center than white kids.  It's the difference between 'kids will be kids' so call their parents to pick them up, and assuming they're just no good.


Why Trump Won't Win Reelection

Here's a prediction based on voting patterns.

"Of course 2016 showed that we need to look beyond the national polls and focus on the swing states. But there too the news is encouraging. In Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin, since Trump took office, his net approval ratings, which started out on the plus side, have fallen — disastrously.
In Pennsylvania they decreased by 17 points, in Wisconsin by 20 points, in Michigan by 22 points. In the midterm voting, those three swing states all elected Democrats in 2018. Wisconsin elected a Democratic governor to replace a Republican and reelected a Democratic senator; Pennsylvania reelected a Democratic governor, and Democrats there took three House seats away from Republican incumbents.
In Michigan, which the Democrats lost to Trump by 11,000 votes, the Democrats had a huge victory in 2018, sweeping the elections for governor and senator and flipping two House seats. Voters also banned gerrymandering and created automatic voter registration, which together will bear fruit in 2020. All this explains why I’m quite certain we’ll be free at last from Donald Trump on Jan. 20, 2021."

But the author acknowledges he also wrote about why Trump couldn't win in 2016.  I'm convinced in a free and fair vote, Trump will lose.  But with voter suppression, voter disinformation campaigns, and potential cyber attacks on voting machines  I'm less confident.

Bursitis? Whatever It Is, Isn't Fun

Getting older is a do-it-yourself anatomy lesson.  You discover parts of your body you never consciously knew existed.  I discovered gout some time ago and know how to recognize it and stop it before it gets bad.

My knees have started giving me problems this year.  Well I did check with the doctor a couple of

years ago and had them take x-rays to see if I was close to causing real damage.  Turns out I still had space and was ok.  But this is different.  I had a bout of this in the summer.  Nothing bad enough to keep me from walking around, but it did cause me to pass up climbing a hill, and I took the elevator instead of the stairs at some places.

Ice, naproxen, and wearing a neoprene knee brace have been helpful in minimizing this problem.

Until yesterday when moving my lower leg in the wrong direction caused severe pain.  It appears I didn't take my knee brace on this trip.  Getting in an out of bed or a chair is hard.  I found my mom's old walker in the garage.  That's helpful.  Not sure what caused this.  There wasn't any excess walking the day before.  There was a lot of roughhousing with the little ones, but nothing that

And then I tried to figure out what it is.  Bursitis sounds right.

From Mayo Clinic on Knee Bursitis

Doctors often can make a diagnosis of knee bursitis with a medical history and physical exam. Your doctor will:

• Compare the condition of both knees, particularly if only one is painful

• √Gently press on areas of your knee to detect warmth, swelling and the source of pain

• Inspect the skin over the tender area for redness or other signs of infection

• √Carefully move your legs and knees to determine your knee's range of motion and whether it hurts to bend or flex it  (red checks (√) added)

And I'm doing the things they say to do - ice, anti-inflammatory pills.  Today I used the walker in the morning, but had a little more range of motion.  I'm hoping I'm a lot closer to normal tomorrow.  It's tender, warm, and a little swollen.  And hurts like hell when I move wrong.


 I'm also playing with a new (to me) computer tool - AutoDesk Sketchbook.  It's a free download and I was looking for something I could use to make quick markups without getting into Photoshop so often.  It seems pretty easy to use, though it's pretty basic.  Practice should unlock more power.  And I need to pay attention to how I do things.  I'm not exactly sure how I did the red saw blade in the illustration.



But remember if people aren't too friendly, they may have severe pain, even severe chronic pain.  It saps you of energy and sparkle.  I was hoping to have something more inspirational for the first day of the year.  Sorry.

Interconnections - Oil and Democracy, Microbes and Human Behavior

The world is complicated and humans are constantly tracking down the linkages between different factors.  The first seems much easier to understand, though confirmation bias plays a big role in how easy it is for someone to understand the link between oil and democracy.


1.  Oil's Impact on Democracy

From Philosophasters

OIL IS THE DEVIL'S EXCREMENT
SEPTEMBER 28, 2017 BY DAVID JACQUES IN ARTICLES
Juan Pablo Pérez Alfonzo was a prominent Venezuelan politician who served two terms in office with the Centrist Betancourt Administration (1947-48 & 1959-64). As Minister for Energy he was drawn into conflict with the U.S. under Eisenhower who had negatively affected quotas on Venezuelan oil by favouring new trade agreements with Canada and Mexico. Alfonzo’s response was to form an alliance with oil producing Arab nations in an attempt to regulate the global oil market. His ideas came to fruition with the establishment of 'The Organisation of Oil Producing Countries' - OPEC.
However, protection within the market and the promise of unfettered wealth arising from Venezuela’s immense oil reserves were undone by what economists came to term the 'natural resource curse'; the sudden influx of money would cause the national currency to dramatically appreciate, wages are driven up, prices inflate, manufacturing, imports and exports all slump. Though this was yet to occur for Venezuela during the early OPEC years, Alfonzo saw it all coming. In a prophetic 1975 speech he uttered the infamous lines: "ten years from now, twenty years from now, you will see; oil will bring us ruin. Oil is the Devil's excrement".

• Rachel Maddow

  Posted: Sun, 13 Oct 2019 20:01:14 -0000

  Play Now
  MSNBC host Rachel Maddow talks about the oil and gas industry’s impact on democracy around the world, tying in Russia’s interference in the 2016 presidential election, the impeachment inquiry of Donald Trump, and more. On October 6, 2019, Rachel Maddow came to the Sydney Goldstein Theater to read from her new book “Blowout: Corrupted Democracy, Rogue State Russia, and the Richest, Most Destructive Industry on Earth”. Maddow spoke to Dan Pfeiffer, a former advisor to President Barack Obama who now co-hosts “Pod Save America”.

I highly recommend Confessions of an Economic Hitman.  It tells the story of how international corporations funnel trillions of public dollars into their own coffers.  It's short and easy to read.  The link tells more about why I recommend it.


2.  Gut Microbes' Impact on Behavior.  

From Science Magazine

Animal sociability through microbes
Accumulating evidence suggests that the microbiota living in and on animals has important functions in the social architecture of those animals. Sherwin et al. review how the microbiota might facilitate neurodevelopment, help program social behaviors, and facilitate communication in various animal species, including humans. Understanding the complex relationship between microbiota and animal sociability may also identify avenues for treating social disorders in humans.
Science, this issue p. eaar2016

These studies are in mice and from the abstract All I could tell was that it affected 'sociability.'
I learned about 10 years ago how my body's functioning was dependent on microbes living inside me.  Finding out the there are 10 times more microbial cells in my body than human cells caused a major shift in how I understand the world and what it means to be human.  I'd note that because the microbial cells are very small, they only make up about 1-3 percent of human body mass.

3.  Census Methodology Impacts on  Gerrymandering

It's no secret that how and who the Census Bureau counts in decennial census counts impacts elections. People who pay attention to the news are aware of the Trump administration's attempt to add a question about citizenship on the 2020 census which would have (and even though it failed, still might have) the effect of causing non-citizens to hide from census takers.

But this article is about how the census bureau counts prisoners - in the community where the prison is located.  Here's the beginning of a primer from the Prison Gerrymandering Project:

"The way the Census Bureau counts people in prison creates significant problems for democracy and for our nation’s future. It leads to a dramatic distortion of representation at local and state levels, and creates an inaccurate picture of community populations for research and planning purposes.
The Bureau counts incarcerated people as residents of the towns where they are confined, though they are barred from voting in 48 states and return to their homes after being released. The practice also defies most state constitutions and statutes, which explicitly state that incarceration does not change a residence."

4.  Blogger Best Wishes and Better New Year

I couldn't find any studies on how blogging good wishes for the new year actually impacts people's
New Year.  I did find this opinion heavy and fact light article on the effects of kindness.  One link is to a Dr. Emoto (really!) who studied how kindness helps water crystals form better and since human bodies are 60% water (plus 3% microbes) being kind helps the water in your body.

There's something off balance in the number 2019.  2020 is much more in tune with human aesthetics.  So I'm wishing you all a great 2020.  Find the good in every day.

"The solution was clear, Wendell said: Buy the votes of Senators" - Being Better Citizens Today By Knowing The Past

Alaskans are likely aware of William Seward more than the rest of the country.  After all, he was the man who arranged to buy Alaska from the Russians, and we even have a state holiday honoring Seward.  But that doesn't mean know much about him.  A local journalist, Mike The Man Who Bought Alaska:  William H. Seward.  He also wrote companion book - The Man Who Sold Alaska: Tsar Alexander II of Russia.  The books came out in 2017, to celebrate Alaska's 150th year as part of the United States.
Dunham, made an effort to educate us when he wrote the book

I read the Seward volume flying down to LA.  It's short and easy to read.

I learned that Seward did a lot of other things besides buy Alaska.  And I already did a post on some of that.

This post is to remind us that history is worth studying so that we understand more about the present.  I've got a few quotes that don't need much comment from me.

Immigration Fights

"Prejudice against Catholics,  especially Irish, was perhaps more intense in New York than prejudice against blacks.  Religious instruction was part of every elementary school curriculum and the doctrine taught would be Protestant, with a good measure of virulent anti-Catholicism thrown in.
Irish immigrants balked at sending their children to such schools and, as a result, many children of Irish parents didn't attend school at all.  Seward's efforts to see that educational funding was shared with Catholic schools raised the ire of the anti-immigrant party that took the name "Know-Nothings."  (p. 26)

Ignorant Voters

"To win the big Northern states of New York and Pennsylvania, Clay positioned himself as the pro-immigration candidate, hoping to obtain the support of German and Irish newcomers who tended to vote Democratic.  It backfired.  Anti-immigrant riots broke out in Philadelphia, the City of Brotherly Love.  The Know-Nothings backed Martin Van Buren, an unabashed nativist.  Clay lost New York and Polk won the election.
The Know-Nothing movement was to me a source of apprehension,"  Seward said.  "When I saw not only individuals but whole communities and parties swept away by an impulse contradicting the very fundamental idea on which the Government rests, I began to doubt whether the American people had such wisdom as I had always given them credit for."  (p. 30)]

Congressional Relationships I

"The first blows of he Civil War came in May of 1856.  Sumner gave a two-day speech dripping with pornographic innuendo and pillorying South Carolina Senator Andrew Butler, comparing him to Don Quixote, infatuated by a harlot.
Two days later, Butler's cousin, Representative Preston Books, stalked into the Senate, found Sumner at his desk and demanded an apology.  Sumner refused, not even looking up from the paper he was writing on.  Brooks used his cane to pummel the Massachusetts Senator nearly to death.
Brooks was exonerated by the House of Representatives. . ." (pp. 39-40)

Bad Supreme Court Decisions

"In March 1858 the Supreme Court gave its verdict in the case of Dred Schott, a slave whose master brought him to a free state.  Scott argued that, as an American citizen in a state that did not allow slavery, he ought to be free.  The court, however, declared that under the Constitution blacks were not and could never be citizens.
Seward denounced the Dred Scott decision in terms that would be considered impolitic if applied to a Supreme Court decision today. "Judicial usurpation is more odious and intolerable than any other among the manifold practices of tyranny," he said, and argued that it was time to reorganize the judicial branch to bring it 'into harmony with the Constitution.'"  (p.  40)

Congressional Relationships II

"Through all the bitterness of the Kansas-Nebraska debates, the attacks in the press and even from friends, Seward remained personally on good terms with members of the other side, dining, drinking, joking and playing whist with them when they weren't in verbal combat on the floor of the Senate.
He closely cooperated with pro-slave Democrat Texas Senator Thomas Rust and even planned a trip around the world with him.  When Rust killed himself in 1857 after being diagnosed with cancer, Seward called it a tragedy for both himself and the country.
In the following year, Mississippi's Jefferson Davis spent weeks in a darkened sickroom because of an eye infection.  Seward visited almost every day, reading the newspapers to him and filling him in on the gossip of the capital."

Impeachment

"Seward took the lead in preparing Johnson's defense.  Working with Democrats and the few moderate Republicans still speaking to him, he obtained a top defense team and raised funds to cover their costs.  He turned to the most powerful lobbyist in Washington, Cornelius Wendell, a man who knew the minds - and the price - of every member of Congress better than they knew themselves.
The solution was clear, Wendell said:  Buy the votes of Senators.  The cost:  a quarter of a million dollars.  Seward raised the money.  Wendell got it to the right people."

AIFF 2019: The Body Remembers When The World Broke Open Is Now On Netflix

Life is going by too fast for me to keep up with all the posts I want to write - like one on my favorite films from the Anchorage International Film Festival 2019.

But one that I did really like, The Body Remembers What The World Forgot is now available on Netflix.

The film, written and co-directed by Canadian Indigenous woman Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers, who also plays one of the two main characters.  The other lead is also a Canadian Indigenous woman.

This was the kind of film you go to festivals to see.  It's not from a Hollywood point of view.  It tells its story the way it needs to tell it without having to satisfy funders or marketers.

[Note:  Netflix doesn't allow screenshots - they come out black.  So I had to take a photo.  I apologize to the film makers for the quality.]

So the pace is not what people are used to, at least what non-Native people are used to.  There are lots of long pauses in the dialogue.  The whole story takes place in real time.  Very real time because, after the title appears, about 12 minutes into the film,  it's basically one long scene in one long camera shot.  (I read that they had cameras ready to pick up where the other ran out of battery)  So they couldn't cut from the women getting into the taxi at the apartment  to where they get out at the safe house.  You watch them get in, then you get in with them and travel the whole distance in very close proximity.

I knew that a film in the festival had been done as a single shot, but I didn't remember which one.  After a while I began to look for the cuts from shot to shot and there weren't any.  Paying attention to the camera made it easier for me to just sit back in the taxi and ride along and not get impatient with the pace.

And having just had seven weeks of a class on homelessness, this film helped illustrate things I'd learned.  There are no easy answers.  People don't break habits quickly.  Helping can be trying.  There are serious societal structural problems that result in homelessness and while individuals can perform acts of kindness, they are only temporary solutions at best until the system is worked on.  And adding in the issues of indigenous peoples in North America requires understanding even more factors.

I would urge people who have Netflix to at least watch the beginning of the film - not as much for the content, but for the feel of this very intimate film.

And I'd like to thank Netflix for putting films like this up.

El Sueño Americano

The only word in the title that might give non-Spanish speakers any difficulty is Sueño, and the poster on the left should clear that up.

This post is based on an exhibit at the Skirball Cultural Center in Los Angeles.  We went because they have an excellent children's space called Noah's Ark which I've posted about before.

There was enough for four or five posts, and given I still have grandchildren around, I'm just going to focus on one and try to get this done quickly.

Here's the artist's statement.  I saved it in higher than normal resolution in hopes you could read it.

Let me highlight this paragraph:

"These confiscations struck me as wrong.  The cruelty of stripping away such personal items from vulnerable people is dehumanizing, both to those whose belongings are taken and to those who enforce the policy."

Combs and Brushes

A few things here:

• The artist, Tom Kiefer,  started this in 2007, during the 2nd Bush administration, so dehumanizing immigrants isn't something that began under Trump.
• As someone who worked at a US Border Control Facility, he noted that it dehumanized the officials who enforced these policies as well as the victims.

And people are leaving ICE.  From the Los Angeles Times in January 2019:

"In March 2017, McAleenan said Customs and Border Protection normally loses about 1,380 agents a year as agents retire, quit for better-paying jobs or move. Just filling that hole each year has strained resources."

This is from an article that is focused on recruitment:

"In a sign of the difficulties, Customs and Border Protection allocated $60.7 million to Accenture Federal Services, a management consulting firm, as part of a $297-million contract to recruit, vet and hire 7,500 border officers over five years, but the company has produced only 33 new hires so far. " [Emphasis Added]

Some Items Confiscated

A large percentage of ICE agents are Latinx according to this Pacific Standard article by Khushbu Shah.  He reports on the 100 interviews by Assistant Professor David Cortez who examined the relationships these officers have with their jobs and why do their jobs.

"Cortez has found that many of the agents he spoke with drew a distinct line between their empathy and their careers. A Latino agent in Texas recently told Cortez he is aware that he might be on the wrong side of history, but the money was too good to quit. The cities where many of the agents come from in the Rio Grande Valley are some of the poorest in the state of Texas, a state in which nearly one in five people lives below the poverty line. The starting salary, in turn, under Customs and Border Protection is nearly $56,000, well above the region's median household income of $34,000."

This is the inscription plate from a bible with notes on travel through the desert and other dates and notes.

Gloves

These are pain tablets.


It's important to remember that the oppressor is dehumanized as much as the oppressed.
And to connect a few more dots, the breaking of unions has allowed the lowering of salaries for many jobs as well as the loss of health benefits and pensions.  And these conditions make it easier to recruit people into the military and other sorts of occupations where people are dehumanized.

And today is nearly the end of 2019 and we're just seeing these images, which began in 2007, now, 12 years later.  Justice takes so much longer than the original acts of abuse and criminality.  

Being A Tourist In Town Where I Grew Up - The Observatory, Travel Town, Visiting Dad

A spectacularly clear day when we left this morning for the Griffith Park Observatory.  The freeway was fairly empty and we made great time, with views of mountains all around with lots of snow.  More than I remember ever seeing.  Not just Mt. Baldy and Mt. Wilson, but all the way around.  Here's just a portion from the Observatory.

 Once we got to Los Feliz, just below the Observatory we hit traffic.  The Observatory doesn't open until noon and it was only 11:45 am, but it was a great day to see views from this spot and everyone was there.  I remember as a kid coming often with my dad and even bringing my son here when we still lived in LA.  The parking lot was where on the right about where that car is.

There is still a lot fairly close, but it was full and most people parked below in the Greek Theater parking lot and walked about a mile up.  A continuous stream of people.  It was like a pilgrimage.  People from all over the world.  You can see a bit of the crowd in the picture below.

Below you can see the Hollywood sign from the upper deck of the Observatory.  

One of the telescope domes.

Inside was pretty chaotic.  But admission is free and there are lots of great astronomy exhibits.  You do have to pay for the planetarium shows

 Here's some of the art deco designs along the roof.

Then off to the other side of Griffith Park to Travel Town.  

Another free attraction.

Although it doesn't call itself a museum, it seems much more a museum than yesterday's visit to the Cayton Children's Museum.




If the photo isn't clear enough, it says:  "DEDICATED TO PRESERVING FOR POSTERITY THE VARIOUS TYPES OF TRANSPORTATION EQUIPMENT THAT HELPED BUILD OUR STATE AND OUR NATION."

The highlight for the kids was the two loops around Travel Town on the miniature train.  And buying snacks in the gift shop.

I took this picture of the hillside from the train to show how green things are after the recent rains.




And about a mile from Travel Town is the cemetery where my father is buried, so we went to visit him as well.  It too is in Griffith Park, a place that he and I spent a lot of time when I was a kid.

 As we pulled up near the grave site, there were deer visiting too.

The light was great as the sun was getting lower in the west.  Sunset in LA has been right about 5pm these days.  (LA is on the east side of the Pacific Time zone, so it's light at 6am, but dark early now.  Check a map.  LA is further east than Reno, Nevada!)

Lots Of Kid Time

We went to the Cayton Children's Museum in the Santa Monica Mall.  It was crowded and noisy and I'd say that museum is a pretentious name for this indoor playground.

A recently refined definition of 'museum'  from the International Councils of Museums

"Museums are democratising, inclusive and polyphonic spaces for critical dialogue about the pasts and the futures. Acknowledging and addressing the conflicts and challenges of the present, they hold artefacts and specimens in trust for society, safeguard diverse memories for future generations and guarantee equal rights and equal access to heritage for all people.
Museums are not for profit. They are participatory and transparent, and work in active partnership with and for diverse communities to collect, preserve, research, interpret, exhibit, and enhance understandings of the world, aiming to contribute to human dignity and social justice, global equality and planetary wellbeing."

Well, that certainly sounds like a definition created by a committee.  I imagine that many of the great museums of the world wouldn't qualify as museums under that definition.  I think the intention is good, but I'd probably separate those things that have been traditionally considered the basic of a museum  "hold artifacts and specimens in trust for society" etc. as the broad definition.  Then I would have listed the aspirational democratic standards (not for profit, participatory, diverse, transparent, etc.) as qualifications for museums that want to be members of the International Council of Museums.

I didn't notice any artifacts and specimens in this museum, unless they were thinking of this as a museum of children's play spaces.  I didn't notice too much addressing the conflicts and challenges of the present.  OK, I don't want to belabor the point.

There were great net tunnels hanging from the ceiling with kids climbing through.  And other fun spaces to navigate, but it wasn't much more than a glorified playground.  I didn't see any conflicts between kids, they all seemed to have enough to keep them busy.  And there was a diverse array of people enjoying the play space.

I've got lots of pictures, but most have my grandkids in them and I don't post their images on the blog.  Here's a picture of my son and myself as rendered in some sort of electronic wall.  I'm on the left.

And the quietest room had low tables with water colors and papers.

Car seat rules make life much more difficult than it was when I was a kid.  Even when my kids were kids.  Some of us drove home and some of us took the bus which had a pretty direct route for us and the SF kids are very used to riding the bus and we had lots of fun.

The weather has been kind.  The two rainy periods this week were during the night.  It was another sunny day, though the temperature only got up into the low 50s.

Why It's Easy To Stay A Trump Loyalist

One's political loyalties, are, at base, emotional.  Whether you're for Trump or against him, emotions play a big role.

Trump does a great job of distracting attention from what's really important.  His Twitter ranting keeps the Left occupied with disbelief, outrage, and non-stop explanations of why Trump is wrong, demented, lying, evil, and/or (pick your own adjective.)  Making the Left angry (a too commonly felt emotion these days)  is one of the things Trump supporters love about him.

Meanwhile there are many ways that Trump is using his presidential power to help himself and his financial supporters - from filling his hotels to cutting regulations and on and on.  A few of these are covered briefly and sporadically the media.  They spend much more time covering his tweets or the horse-race aspects of the Democratic nomination processes. (Who's ahead or behind and why.)

Refuting Trump's claims to his followers is hard, not only because of Fox Lies (a better title than News)  and trolls from wherever, but ALSO because the stories are so complicated.

Seth Abramson keeps telling us to pay attention to the details of the Trump shenanigans.

I've been following Seth Abramson  on Twitter for a couple of years now.(I can't figure out how to tell when I started following someone on Twitter, but it's at least before Proof of Collusion came out.)  He's been tracking all the media reports on Trump related activities for his books Proof of Collusion and Proof of Conspiracy.  These are two excellent ways to get the big picture of many of Trump's convoluted intrigues.

IT'S EASY TO STAY A TRUMP LOYALIST BECAUSE  all the intrigue is so complicated.  There are so many players and so many things done clandestinely. Abramson's books are like the program you get at the baseball game or the theater that explains who all the players are.

Abramson has a long Twitter thread today which makes this point.  I'm embedding the thread at the end of this post because I realize lots of my readers don't use Twitter and don't know quite how it works. Tweets can only  be 280 characters.   A thread is a series of linked Tweets so someone can tell a longer story.)

The thread explains the Trump Ukraine history from today, back through the July 24, 2019 phone call through to March 2016.

Here's some of the thread:

Seth Abramson
@SethAbramson
2/ The Ukraine scandal is *insanely* complex. My research suggests it's *more* complex than the Russia case—which was already wild as hell...but media *must* find a way to explain it to America during this "lull" in the impeachment story. *Teach* America about the Naftogaz angle.
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Seth Abramson
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3/ Here's the simple version: Trump has been laundering campaign donations using Giuliani and Parnas in exchange for helping the two men do business in Ukraine. All of which is part of a shakedown of Ukraine to politically *and* financially benefit Trump, Putin...and nobody else.
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4/ The Ukraine scandal begins in *March 2016*. Yes—I'm serious. Trump has been scheming over how to use Ukraine to his benefit for *over four and a half years*. The July 25 Zelensky call was a *minor episode* in a *years-long* course of conduct that was criminal, start to finish.
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5/ Within *two days* of pro-Kremlin operative-in-Ukraine Paul Manafort joining Trump's campaign in March 2016, Trump—whose only Ukraine policy to that point was "let Russia have Crimea without penalty"—was *directing his national security team* to deep-six all lethal aid to Kyiv.
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6/ So Kremlin agent Manafort—who signed a deal with Putin lieutenant Deripaska in 2006 to aid Putin in America; Google it—joins Trump's campaign and *immediately* Trump is *proactively* setting up an anti-Ukraine foreign policy that goes *beyond* opposing sanctions on Russia.
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7/ Within *days* of Russia's hack of the DNC being caught, that same Kremlin agent—Manafort—is telling Trump Ukraine did it, not Russia, and Trump is going on the stump and saying "no one knows" who did the hack. Folks, this... *isn't* rocket science for a criminal investigator.
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8/ Trump then spends the next two years trying to ensure Manafort doesn't talk to the feds... partly by *threatening Ukraine* out of assisting Mueller. And that includes blocking military aid to Ukraine...*in 2017*. And yet we're pretending this is all about one call in mid-2019?
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9/ I mean *jeez*, do people realize Mulvaney was only *made* Trump's acting chief of staff in December 2018 (but Trump made *sure* he kept his OMB job!) *because* Mulvaney helped Trump shake down Ukraine in late 2017 and early 2018? That is *how Mulvaney got his damn job*, folks.
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Here are a couple more:

15/ The president's personal attorney as recently as 48 hours ago *flew on the private jet* of the chief villain in this whole story, Dmytro Firtash.
That's right: the degrees of separation between Trump and the chief villain of this years-long story is {*checks math*}... *one*.
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16/ Except it's not! It's *zero*. Because—surprise ending!—it turns out that Donald Trump was going to *go into business with Firtash* in the late 2000s, in a deal that was to be set up by... hmm, let me check my records... someone pretty obscure, surel—
—Paul Manafort.
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17/ Is anyone surprised Trump lied about how well he knows Manafort, just like he's lied about how well he knows Felix Sater (that lie was under oath!) or Lev Parnas or even (now that he's saying he never told Giuliani to go to Ukraine, and doesn't know who his clients are) Rudy?

It's so complicated that most Lefties trying to dispute Trumpies don't really have an inkling of all the details and those that do have trouble keeping it all straight.

Here's a link to the whole thread.

And I shouldn't neglect wishing a Merry Christmas to those celebrating.  Tonight is the fourth night of Chanunka.  Some might say that the fact that one of the holiest days of Christianity is a national holiday is proof that Christians hold a privileged role in the US.  But others might argue that Christmas as it's celebrated in the US nowadays is proof of the power of capitalism instead.

Enjoy your life whatever you celebrate.  Find good in every day and everyone.