Politics Archives

The Wave

Movies, Politics
Sep 7, 2026
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Four years ago I wrote a post about disaster porn, contemplating how we react to disaster movies and how we are prepared by them for what is happening in real life. It was one of my most clicked posts of all times – the word porn must have had a magnetic effect… – but I doubt that it was one of the most read ones, given its analytical rather than pornographic content.

Disaster Porn

I had meant to get back to the topic after watching a wildly successful Norwegian disaster film from 2016, The Wave, that eerily sketches a scenario we have now observed in real life. A mountain crumbling (in Nepal and Tibet a glacier melting that led to tectonic shifts and a rockslide), causing a catastrophic movement of water, a mudslide in real life, a tsunami in the movie. The unstoppable wave took everything in its path.

What happened in the Himalayas is in detail described here by folks who monitor and assess geological risks. Nepal is calling for climate compensation, as a moral obligation for India, China and the US who are world’s top industrial emitters of carbon dioxide. Their acceleration of climate change makes countries who are far less contributing to the world’s warming far more likely to be harmed by its effects. Thousands have died in the August Rasuwa flood, and more than 6000 are still missing. That is not counting all those who were physically harmed, or the loss of possession, physical structures, and economic disruption.

The disaster movie keeps us in the dark about how many people were killed by the environmental catastrophe. It focuses on human connections – on heroic people and people less so, who happen to meet “just ends” for their failures. The film is overall splendidly done, visually enticing, at the right level of narrative speed, some real scary action shots, sympathetic and talented actors

It drove me nuts, though, in its function to seed thoughts that good people, those you identify with from the beginning, almost always survive. Minimal outline: smart scientist and his family about to leave a touristy village where he worked in risk assessment as a geologist. He senses something is wrong when his team ignores data, partially afraid that a false alarm might disturb the village’s summer income from all those visitors. When the intuited catastrophe hits, he and his 7 year-old daughter miraculously survive the tsunami. Much focus on communal mutual aid during the escape scenes, and one or another peripheral character dies. Hero’s wife and their older son are trapped in the bomb shelter of the hotel where she works. He goes in to rescue them – after some drama, happy ending for the nuclear family.

The message here? If only they had heeded the warning, more could have escaped. (Wake-up call: in real life, those warnings often don’t exist, or the means to distribute them are absent, or escape routes are unavailable.) Catastrophes occur, but there will always be survivors! (This is true, but gives the false hope that you must be among them, through identification with the narrators through whose eyes you see the story unfold.) Good guys get rewarded, bad guys get their just desserts. (Not how life works.) Each one of those messages undermines our willingness to tackle the causes of disaster, climate change in particular, before it is too late.

***

Well, today’s focus is now on an entirely different wave, a destructive force of a different kind. A small German state had an election yesterday, with almost 78% of the voters casting a ballot (up from 60% 4 years ago.) The right-wing extremist party AfD (Alternative for Deutschland) got almost 44% of the vote, 3 seats short of a majority government in that state. For the remaining parties to be able to gain the majority for governing, all 5 would have to unite, which is incomprehensible given their ideologically differences.

It was a shock, if not a surprise. The most conservative party that currently leads the country with chancellor Merz, got absolutely trashed, despite their political maneuvering of adapting to, if not plain adopting some of the topics of AfD during the election campaigns, with ever increasing hatred towards immigrants and culturally “woke” populations. Calls for a prohibition of the AfD were ignored or seen as counter productive.

Here is the deal: In contrast to the United States, Germany has restrictions of what people can say and do, if those things undermine the democratic constituents of our legal order, endanger democracy itself. This was the hard won lesson from having succumbed to fascism (with Sachsen Anhalt, that same state, by the way, also electing the Nazis with 44% in 1933.) Never again was written all over these constitutional restrictions. In fact, people tried to prohibit a Nazi-aligned party, the NPD, under these guidelines, which the German Constitutional Court (our Supreme Court) denied. The core idea is that we cannot allow a majority vote for something that in turn establishes anti-democratic rule, no matter how many people buy into the authoritarian ideology and would be happy to give up their democratic rights if only their other needs – economic, psychological, tribal – are met.

I will attempt to describe the AfD party program in detail in my next blog, including their false promises and their copycat talking points containing Nazi benchmarks. I’ll also try to understand why so many people contributed to this brown wave, in a country that lived through the horrors of the first one, not so long ago. For now, I just need respond to the many messages I got last night, with people wondering about the parallels between here and there, the seeming rise of an authoritarian Right across the globe, now in a country that, of all of them, should know better.

Music today by Telemann who was born in what is today Sachsen Anhalt.

Here is a Poem for my German readers –

Bei Hitlers brennt noch Licht.
Es ist nie ganz erloschen,
nur eine kurze, ruhige Zeit war’s Fenster fest verschlossen.
Nur ab und zu, ganz schüchtern fast, kaum hörbar, ein Gewisper…
Man nahm’s kaum wahr und dachte sich: „Was soll’s? Da ist noch Licht an.“
Bei Hitlers brennt noch Licht – Jetzt treten sie ans Fenster.
Jetzt sieht man sie, jetzt hört man sie …
das sind keine Gespenster.
Ganz stolz und lautstark steh’n sie da, entzünden und krakeelen.
Und ihre Drohung ist ganz klar: „WIR GEHEN WIEDER WÄHLEN!“
Bei Hitlers brennt noch Licht.
Vernunft wo bist Du? Wo?
Komm‘ raus und hilf … und schalt‘ es aus.
… sonst brennt es lichterloh.

Simon Pearce or Erich Kästner – debates about origins….

The Impact of Data Centers.

Before the heat got to me, I went on a joint adventure with my friend Jan to photograph multiple data processing centers that have sprung up in the vicinity of Portland. Her insightful take, as a psychologist and a documentarian, on how these AI molochs are sold to the public, can be found here.

Basically, these buildings house computers that train AI language models. There are thousands of them across the country, with many more thousands planned, including in our own backyard. Communities are told to hand over land, electricity and water with the promise that they will benefit in turn. Vision of tax revenues and job- and future business opportunities are floated.

The reality? Tax revenues are usurped by tax breaks granted to the centers. That money goes back to the investors rather than the communities. Job opportunities might happen during the construction phase, but that only lasts for a year or two. And even there, often labor is assigned to trade professionals from out of state. A staff of only 20-50 people is needed, once the center is running, tending to the servers (note that many of these behemoth buildings sport no more than 2 toilets – a clear indication of the planned number of staff). No ripple effects either – you don’t get cheaper or faster access to these technologies, just because you live close by. No thousands of workers buying lunch at the local markets, or added medical facilities that could serve a rural community.(Ref.)

The immediate benefits to communities are small to non-existent. The costs are real. The massive expansion of fuel and water demands depletes communal resources, increases costs for individuals, and interferes with our agreed climate goals because it keeps fossil fuel plants open for longer instead of moving towards renewable energy sources. It is predicted that center demand will be up to 15% of our nation’s total electricity volume in the near future. (In Wyoming, for example, a planned Meta data center will require more electricity than every household in the state, combined. To meet demand for power-hungry data centers, utilities are adding capacity to the grid. But although that added capacity may benefit tech companies, the cost is shared by local consumers. )

There is also physical harm if you live near these centers. Air pollution is the largest concern. But the unending noise pollution from HVAC cooling systems, diesel generators and fans also stresses people out, interrupts their sleep and gives them headaches. There is economic harm since the resale value of your homes drops like a stone. Agencies tasked with overseeing noise pollution have no handle, since local governments selling out to AI firms can simply change zoning rules that favor the centers.

Here is a sample of the noise neighbors have to deal with.

People are no fools. The absence of gains and presence of harm (particularly when it comes to water depletion caused by the infinite thirst of these centers) is well noted and has lead to a opposition that runs across the political divide, a divide otherwise so unsurmountable in this country. A recent Gallup poll found that 7 in 10 Americans oppose these schemes that produce suffering for the communities while the companies profit.

What is needed for opposition? Transparency, for one. Often the negotiations for land sale, water rights and tax credits are done under the veil of secrecy and non-disclosure requirements. That alone should make one think: why should there be secret deals if everything is a-ok? Particularly around water usage? Google, for example, consumed 40% of all water in The Dalles, OR in 2025. The city won’t say how much of the rising demand comes from Google, citing a promise to keep the numbers secret and confidentiality provisions in Oregon public records law. (Ref.)

Local engagement by citizens flooding the relevant local officials with demands and calls for rejection is another factor. Calls for legislation or communal bans that imposes moratoria on new buildings until we know the actual costs, have multiplied. Lawsuits, if necessary, letting the courts decide about false or broken promises, harm assessment, or legal loopholes.

Then there are workers. On the one hand, the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) has argued that union workers are powering the AI industry. “Meta recently announced a skilled trade academy program, and Google committed $50 million to help train people in skilled trades.” But, as reported here, some electricians are starting to wonder about the ethics of the job and refuse to work for AI companies.

The bi-partisan pushback has already affected the trade – and is expected to become a flashpoint for both the primaries and the actual mid-term elections (lots of candidates in favor of data centers lost their primaries, for both parties.) For example, residents in Los Angeles County’s Monterey Park becoming the first to vote to permanently ban data centers earlier this month. Virginia’s Democratic-controlled state legislature and Democratic governor ended a budget standoff over the state’s data center tax breaks on Monday, agreeing on a new tax on data centers for their energy consumption. (Ref.) Closer to home, we have seen real resistance in La Pine, Prineville, and now Hillsboro. Hillsboro, where I photographed, has an estimated 125 data centers and is currently exploring its options to pause further development. 1000 friends of Oregon have filed a lawsuit just last week, to stop giving public dollars to data centers, with tax rebates locked in for potentially decades.

So far, some $64 billion of data center projects have been blocked or delayed by local opposition around the country. Details per state can be found here. Clearly, when people overcome their alignment to party only, and get together to fight for the common good, they can be successful.

Optimists are already speculating: When these data centers become debt traps in a few years at most, the next Dem president should offer to wipe out those debts if they’re sold for a dollar back to cities for community centers, mutual aid hubs, YMCA-style temporary housing services. Try to salvage anything out of this mess. (Ref.) (Sometimes doesn’t pay to be an optimist – the million responses to this post from last week were pointing out why none of those suggestions was feasible (often for toxic pollution left over by the centers. Poor Ben Collins, the author.)

Here is a friendly reminder (by Hitchhikers of the Galaxy) about the future of computers. And some visual examples of what is (about to be) out there….

Microsoft/Wisconsin

Switch/Nevada

Dupont/Virginia

OpenAI Stargate/Arizona

Meta – Plans/Arizona

Versions of Ecocide.

“The sociopathic hierarchies our culture has inherited were invented by a people taught that they were separate from, and likely condemned by, the very thing which had created them—and in response to their disenfranchisement they built a ladder, and dominated every rung they perceived as beneath them; because the sense of superiority masked the pain of disconnection. But, like any masked thing, the fact of its existence remains and, whether engaged with or not, pain always finds a way to be expressed. Ecocide, then, is the logical conclusion to this severance—if that which created us will not love us, better to kill it, than feel the pain of its refusal. Ecocide is deicide is suicide. It is our collective response to feeling orphaned, and not knowing how to be with the grief of it. The tragedy, of course—beside the mountains of dead and dying, and the silence where once there was birdsong—is that it was never even true. That we have always belonged, more completely than we could bear, but that we were handed a set of goggles many generations ago, and we’re still wondering around thinking they’re our eyes.” – Chloe Hope

***

Before it got too hot last week, I hiked along the Columbia river at Beacon Rock State Park, named after a large rock already mentioned in Lewis&Clark’s diaries in 1805 during their westward expedition. A short drive away from Portland into Skamania County, WA, you can dwell on both nature and history.

The nature is gorgeous, the history rotten, what else is new.

The Yakima Treaty of Camp Stevens in 1855 forced the tribal owners of the land – the Sahaptian and Coast Salish Indigenous people – to cede their land. In 1865 the land passed into private ownership, with frontage on the Columbia River, including the Indigenous village below Beacon Rock, claimed under the terms of the Donation Land Claim Act, which codified land claims for the earliest American migrants into the area.

Various private investors across the decades bought and and often defaulted on land and timber parcels or tax loads. In 1929, Spencer Biddle and Rebecca Biddle Wood, then private owners of Beacon Rock, offered it as a land donation to the State of Washington for a State Park. Governor Roland H. Hartle refused the donation. Only when the Superintendent of Oregon State Parks tried to acquire the land, did public opinion force a shift of the Washington State administration which finally agreed to a state park in 1935. (Ref.)

The meadows were filled with daisies, the air full of birdsong, small tributaries gurgling into the larger river. The breeze had the aspen and alder leaves turn, shimmering silvery in the early afternoon light. It was quiet, few hikers out and the rock climbing side of the rock closed to protect nesting falcons.

Across the river you could see the burnt forests of the Gorge, making me think about current administration attempts to dismantle the US Forest Service—shuttering 57 research labs, relocating HQ, and forcing out thousands of federal workers, including woodland firefighters. (Congress could, of course, stop this sabotage.)

How can one possibly explain the rationale for curtailing protection for our lands (and the workers and citizens tied to it? Is it as simple as for-profit motives, or anti-science bent? Refusing to acknowledge the reality of climate change which will increase the need for fire fighting, among others, and more rather than less forest management geared towards meeting the changing needs, to extract the very last penny from the land, acquiescing to certain eventual collapse?

What happened, considering that previous Republican administrations were instrumental in helping science along, now actively in the process of being dismantled not just for forests and agriculture, but weather research, ocean monitoring, food safety, and of course issues related to disease, from prevention to treatment, vaccination to the availability of new drugs. After all, the National Academy of Sciences was founded in the Lincoln administration; NASA in the Eisenhower administration, and PEPFAR (U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief), PMI (President’s Malaria Initiative) and the NTDs (neglected tropical diseases) program were launched in the George W. Bush Administration.

Some trace the adoption of anti-science stance as a major platform of the GOP to the year 2015 when the antivaccine movement pivoted to political extremism on the right. It continued massively during the Covid pandemic and the perceived curtailing of “freedom” with mask mandates, public closures, social distancing and vaccination requirements. These days the anti-science sentiment has reached a fever pitch, not just nationally. It’s going global risking hundreds of thousands of lives.

A lot of it, alas, has to do with religion. The evangelical hard right claims that science is not only anathema to faith, but actively trying to undermine it. It can’t be trusted (Science is a hoax! Just look at how it changes its finding all the time!). Worse, it is a secular tool to lure people away from the “right” Christian path.

There are additional factors at work, though. One, if you are a member of a group (or a child raised there) that has certain attitudes, you will adopt them for group cohesion and a sense of belonging. And secondly, it is always hard to engage with some new facts or insights that very much contradict your current thinking. (True for all of us.) That is particularly true for people who were raised with or have personalities favoring rigid belief systems rather than flexible openness to the new and different. In other words, it’s hard to get scientific information to stick when it raises the possibility of conflict within a person’s assumptions about the world as it is and SHOULD be.

All the more so, when you think of your world as a hierarchical system where you perceive “elites” associated with science/scientists as looking down on you or pulling the wool over your eyes. If the world is perceived to be a ladder, not only does it help your sense of worth mistreating those on rungs beneath you. Just think how great it’ll make you feel if you can punish those who you assume are above, ready to stomp.

“Let’s burn it all down. That’ll show them who has the power…”

Well, burn it will, and everyone, no exemption, will be harmed by level 3 evacuations or the loss of public lands that have sustained Americans for centuries, and the Native tribes for millennia before that. All in the wake of climate change denial and anti-science rage. Never mind greed.

Music today by a Portland treasure.

Nothing but Roses. Except…

Last week I was invited to photograph my favorite garden, once again. So much in bloom, but for today I want to give the roses place of honor. Just wish I could send the scent(s) as well – they were as enticing as the visuals.

Roses need a lot of care and attention, being susceptible to soil and light conditions, in need to be fed, appropriately watered ( which can differ from species to species) and protected from pests. That about sums up my reading recommendations for today: a lot about attention, the existence of pests, and food for our brains….

I’ll start with a link to a wonderfully introspective piece (easy to read, too) that alerts us to how our attention is manipulated these days and the cost attached to this inflicted dispersion. Chloe Hope once again moved me to tears, when she describes the mining of attention:

“Poets, mystics, children and sages have, for centuries, pointed towards our attention as being inseparable from our love. They noticed how, in the presence of what we cherish, we gather ourselves in—how the fractured, weather-like self draws together and briefly becomes whole, before it’s offered out, towards our devotion. I doubt that any of them thought that, one day, it would require defending. That our species would come to tolerate a culture in which attention is mined for profit….Predatory capitalism mines our attention so it can sell us things we don’t need, so it can tell us that nothing is precious but that everything is urgent, and that the ache we collectively feel can be soothed by some new, shiny thing. It needs us looking towards its wares and away from the global damage it inflicts…”

Let’s gather our attention and look towards the things that matter, the protection of who and what we love.

Hard to do, of course, when my attention is drawn to the pests of the world, be they screwworm making a reappearance after the Trump administration canceled the relevant protection programs, or Ebola rushing forwards, with this nation unprepared for a major catastrophic outbreak, again due to cancelation of the relevant security measures. Never mind the less obvious (presidential) kinds, that make major policy decisions by consulting their dead dog (by now cloned into at least 4, maybe 5 other copies.) He welcomed a prominent American oligarch into his Argentinian realm this month, sharing the passion for discussing the Antichrist and humanity’s future (bleak, if these kinds of people’s vision blooms, mind you.)

However, if you read one piece today and are not afraid of length and careful attention requirements, I recommend this one: Nancy Fraser discusses Gaza as world event. The focus is on our moral treatment of this ever complex situation, with special attention to Germany, America and Japan. I was, of course, interested in the German part in particular, but the entire essay was more enriching than much of what I read all month long.

For those of you who are interested in psychology, trauma research and politics (bundled, no less) I would also urge to read Jon Danforth-Appell’s article in the Jewish Currents: Does the Jewish Body keep the Score? He dissects the myth of body memories (in those not directly born to survivors who might transmit a heightened sensitivity or reactivity to their offspring). He also tackles the fact that biological explanatory models are used to exculpate violent and aggressive behavior when applied to the survivor narrative. A must read for all those involved in or concerned by the antiZionism = antiSemitism debate.

Last but not least, the visit to the garden produced a special find: a crow nest from last year came down from a tree, showing a lot of duct tape woven into the twigs, clever recycling. It reminded me of the new kinds of birds’ nests found these day in Ukraine: they are constructed of discarded drone fiber-optic cables. Our’s to frame: Apocalyptic vision or wildlife, ever adapting.

Birds in Ukraine are building nests from discarded drone fiber-optic cables

Music by Schubert today – Das Rosenband.

Crime Day.

Justice, Politics, War
Jun 5, 2026
2 Comments

I had come for Fleet Week, but the first thing that caught my attention was a sticker on the railing along the Esplanade:

Fleet Week is a Portland tradition during our annual Rose Festival that also sports a fun fair, a parade with floats and bands, a number of entertainment events. Ships arrive and stay for a few days, with the Navy or the Cost Guard inviting people to look at them and come on board for guided tours.

Well, that’s how it used to be. Nowadays they are fenced off, and you have to present a passport or a realID to gain admission even into the perimeter, much less boarding a ship.

Sailors roam the town, as they always did, much to the delight of some out for a nightly adventure.

Sailors with machine guns or holstered handguns roam the Esplanade, the pathway along the river.

Small boats with manned machine guns roam the river. It is a pathetic and infuriating display of fire power for what end?

I could not help but wonder what the naval personnel were thinking, given the latest news about troubles at that branch of the military. Secretary of Defense Hegseth had just blocked the promotions to one-star admirals of several senior Navy officers who had already been selected for promotion by a board of senior Navy admirals. African Americans, women and a sprinkling of White men who had participated in DEI associated events. Also during his tenure, 19 senior generals or flag officers have been fired or sidelined, with several of them being women or minorities. Just yesterday the entire leadership of the ship repair facility located in Japan was fired.

The National Security Journal reports that the US Navy is broken in term of meeting ship repair and replacement requirements or additional vessel construction. Alternatively, the National Interest Organization claims that battle ships are obsolete and should never come back. (26 vessels will be decommissioned this year alone. Given what we have learned from the Ukraine defense teams using David vs Goliath tactics against Russian battle ships, we might take heed.) Defense expert Isaac Seitz notes how the U.S. Navy faces a critical 2026 “maintenance crunch” as the USS John C. Stennis (CVN-74) refueling and complex overhaul (RCOH) slips 14 months behind schedule to October 2026. Labor shortages and a degraded steam turbine have pushed costs up by $483.1 million, creating a dangerous overlap with the USS Harry S. Truman(CVN-75), which begins its five-year overhaul in June 2026. The USS Gerald R. Ford aircraft carrier is moving away from operations tied to the Iran war and sailing to the US Navy’s base in Crete for repairs after a fire broke out in the ship’s laundry area.

Many families claim that the deployed sailors face food shortages and low quality food during ever longer stationing, and that the mailed food packages from home had never been delivered. Hegsth fiercely rebutted it as “fake news.” Reports are, however, that morale is at an all time low. All that while we are at war.

War seems to be the term everyone has settled on, given the realities of the ongoing hostilities. Of course a war would require congressional approval, which was never requested. What do you do, when your own administration breaks the law? When you have someone like Congressman Mullins refusing to meet his obligation to follow court orders for DHS? when you have by now over 300 (!) Habeas cases in which the government has defied court orders?

In immigration cases alone, the defiant violations range widely. Commonly there is no filing of briefs, justification for a petitioner’s detention, or updates and status reports to courts that had ordered them. Often during these periods of silence, prisoners are clandestinely transferred, and so a new Habeas case needs to be opened.

Then there is the failure to release the detainees in a court-ordered timely fashion. Or conditions are added, that were not allowed by the court (including wearing of ankle monitors or frequent check-ins with ICE.) Worse, some detainees are deported to third party countries, despite explicit court orders not to deport them. Often property is not returned to released detainees – important things like work permits or drivers licenses. Often the government lies to the courts, and often many of these violations are simultaneously present in any given case.

It is hard to find a case where there was any further action against violators, once they had reluctantly complied with the court orders. Impunity, in other words, for crime days, plural.

If you are interested in what courts CAN do if the Trump Administration continues to defy court orders, here is an informative listing by the Brennan Center for Justice. Not much reason to be optimistic, alas, when the buck stops with a Supreme Courts as our present one. Even the street posters know that….

Music hopes for Calm Seas.

Just when you were feeling fine….

Finally!

Walk with me, back to our old haunts, Oak Island in full spring regalia.

Before you can even appreciate the views, another sense is stimulated: clouds of sweet hawthorn blossom-scent waft across the meadows. So many of those trees in bloom, predominantly white, but a few pink ones sprinkled in here or there.

The oak trees are leafing out, some of the fresh leaves still uncoated by the least amount of dust. They reflect the light, shining golden green.

Colors are intensified by a grayish sky, providing a terrific contrast effect.

Dog roses embrace trees.

Cherries are already setting fruit, but otherwise blossoms everywhere.

Some old apple trees,

and friends,

and myriad wild flowers, Camassia Quamash among them sprinkling the grass with sky blue.

And of course hawthorn everywhere, sometimes veering on pink.

The waters are still, the occasional carp jumping, robin unperturbed by the splashes in the water.

The woods had a fairy tale quality, including rings nourished by cow droppings.

Heart singing. That was Tuesday.

Maybe just stick with the photographs.

________________________________________________________________________________________

I feel so thoroughly gutted by Wednesday’s Supreme Court decision eviscerating what was left of the Voting Rights act, that I don’t have it in me to write much until my rage settles. I will link to a couple of smart pieces, though, that will lay out what we are now facing without too much jargon or getting into the legal nitty gritty.

Here is a gift link to Adam Server in The Atlantic.

Here is Leah Litman, one of the most astute court observers.

Here is the Brennan Center for Justice.

And here is an NYT timeline of the Voting Rights Act.

It didn’t take 24 hours for the fallout to emerge: Mississippi and Alabama announce that they will eliminate their Black majority districts. Louisiana is literally suspending their primaries to draw more racist maps. The legacy of MLK Jr., John Lewis and so many others who fought for and paid a bloody price for the ability to vote and be fairly represented all down the drain courtesy of the Roberts Court. With the most disingenuous rationale, they are ushering in a period of drastic reduction in minority representation in the name of equal protection. Perverse.

I am just floored. Although not surprised.

Music is self explanatory…..

_________________________________________________________________________________________

Some things to bring potential cheer towards the end of the week:

There is a closing reception for the photo exhibition “Lloyd Center Journal”, at the gallery of PLACE, 735 NW 18th Ave at Johnson St. Regular Viewing Hours: M-F, 10-6. If you are in town this Friday, 5/1, you are invited to the Closing Reception from 5:30-7:30 pm, with Artist Talk (Horatio Law at 6pm), and guest speakers Tanya Gossard of Slabtown Tours and Norm Gholston of Architecture Heritage Center (6:15pm) on the history and architecture of Lloyd Center. (Quick reminder: this Friday we are called not to shop or work as a form of protest against what is raining down on this nation.)

On Saturday is the opening reception at the Columbia Gorge Museum for Indelicate, a new show of works around women’s roles in service to a society that wanted them stay at home. Featured are actress, writer and artist Jessalyn Maguire, and Sonia Kasparian, fashion designer and artist from Season 17 of “Project Runway. I have not yet seen the exhibition but look forward to exploring it at a later point.

May 02, 2026, 6:00 PM – 8:00 PM

Columbia Gorge Museum, 990 SW Rock Creek Dr, Stevenson, WA 98648, USA

On the Road home.

1100 kilometers on the road in the car by myself. A lot of time to think, and a lot of occasions to stop, stretch my legs and feel awe for the beauty around me.

At this time of year, central California is a riot of color, before the drab of drought sets in. Blossoming oleander lining the median of the highway, fruit trees in bloom, and every where the brilliance of mustard plants. Their yellow against the blue mountains on the horizon reminded me of the war in Ukraine, with another spring under assault, no end in sight. The impunity of those declaring war, the suffering of those forced into it, betrayed even by former allies.

Fire towers everywhere. Birds were searching for grubs, meadows in yellow and purple, again the color combination forcing me to think eastwards. Enough, I decided, let’s get distracted by some surely apolitical site, an abbey built by and for Cistercian monks. Hah! Leave it to me to find the politics there as well….

The Abbey of our Lady of New Clairvaux is located in Vina, California. The small hamlet is close to I-5, and attracts thousands of visitors annually mostly because of the New Clairvaux winery operated by the monks. I did not visit the winery, but drove through the vineyards and beautifully planted and maintained grounds up to the church nearby.

The visitor is greeted by a sculpture outside the church doors that signals strong “Take the baby, Joseph, I’m late for my shift!” vibes. Just kidding, it is of course a representation of a savior offered to the world, beautifully rendered. Surprised me, though, since the core tenet of Trappist monks, as I understood it, was to pray in surrounds bereft of ornamentation, stained glass and sculptures included.

It turned out that you can only enter the church between 2:30 pm and 5:00 pm, the only time not devoted to different chapters of prayer service. But seeing it from the outside was worthwhile the detour, once I learned the history of its construction.

In 1955, Father Thomas Davis, abbot of the newly-founded abbey of our Lady of New Clairvaux, noticed piles of stones in San Francisco’s Golden Gate park, which turned out to be the original building blocks of the Cistercian Monastery of Santa Maria De Ovila located in Trillo, Spain. The abbey had been abandoned for over 150 years and at times used as animal shelter. (I’ll get to how they got there in a minute.) After much historical research, documentation and architectural planning, the stones were brought by 19 trucks to Vina and used for restoring the abbey in the 1990s.

About 60% of the stones could be salvaged. A quarry in Texas delivered what more was needed for the building, and to reinforce the structural integrity of the original stones, which were made in 1181, architects used concrete blocks. That also checked the requirement to be earthquake proof. I obviously missed seeing the ancient stones on the inside, given the visiting hours, but some of the remaining ones are incorporated into the landscape outside the building, much to the photographer’s delight. You can read more about the specifics and the general philosophy behind Cistercian architecture here.

How did the original cloister stones get to San Francisco? A tax-evading millionaire, of course…

It turns out, William Randolph Hearst had shipped the stones from Spain to incorporate into his estate in Wyntoon, in the remote Siskiyou mountains in Northern California. He believed these historical elements would sufficiently reflect his wealth and taste for the extraordinary. It cost him $97.000 in 1925 to buy the monastery, shipped to San Francisco after dismantling in 1931. They were given to the city as tax abatement. Who cares about historic artifacts, spiritual ones no less, dumped into the maintenance grounds of a park….

Cue the “loot or buy up foreign artifacts and antiquities” debate? Not today.

The politics I want to circle back to are written up perfectly by Noah Hawley in a terrific essay in The Atlantic: WHAT I LEARNED ABOUT BILLIONAIRES AT JEFF BEZOS’S PRIVATE RETREAT – For the richest men on Earth, everything is free and nothing matters. (I tried to set it up as a gift link – free to read. If it isn’t working, let me know.) It analyzes the historical developments of impunity for the rich. Here is the concluding paragraph to whet your appetite.

“The world has always been run by rich men. The robber barons of the Gilded Age were known for their ruthlessness in the accumulation of wealth—hiring Pinkertons to shoot striking unionists. But they directly engaged with the world around them, using their wealth and power to muscle it into its most profitable form. And although today’s billionaires are clearly manipulating society to maximize their own profit, something else is also happening—a disassociation from the reality of cause and effect, from meaning and history. These men no longer feel the need to change the world in order to succeed, because their success is guaranteed, no matter what happens to the rest of us.”

I am back home now, tired, happy. Spring has arrived in Oregon as well. Soon we’ll walk together through familiar haunts! First I need to sleep for a week or two, though….

Music today is sung my Trappist monks.

Thoughts on Passover

I have been thinking about children again. This time cued by the work of a Turkish photographer, Ugur Gallenkus, who won the International Photography award for his book Parallel Universes of Children.

The artist creates photomontages that combine photographs of children from affluent, safe environments with those less fortunate – children living in war zones, filled with threat of instability, physical harm and starvation. The juxtapositions expose the reality of war, exemplified by its most innocent victims.

The images fit seamlessly with other thoughts on Passover, our holiday about to begin tonight. This year there will be heavy hearts around the Seder table, and there is much conflict and tension in larger Jewish communities as well. Intense disagreement about what has become of Israel, of the U.S., of all involved in the wars in Gaza, Lebanon and Iran, is driving entire congregations apart.

People cannot agree on what is just, what is moral, or if we see the beginning of the end of a (claimed) democratic project in the Middle East. Jews themselves cannot agree if anti-Zionism must or must not be equated with anti-Semitism. Jews see shadows on the wall, when U.S. courts force academic institutions to provide the administration with lists of names of all Jewish students and staff, the same institutions that stifle dissent.

Many of us speak of genocidal wars against Palestinians, others cheer the likes of Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir. He pushed through the death penalty by hanging for Palestinians convicted of having intended harm or committed terrorism against the state of Israel. Look at his lapel pin.

The new law, passed by the Knesset this week, is discriminatory in so far that non-Palestinians are exempted, widening racial discrimination already present in the state. (61 of 120 members in favor, 48 abstaining…)The UN Human Rights office is one of many voices strongly opposed to the death penalty, and points out that there are hundreds of Palestinian children in Israeli prisons, often for years without trial; just last week, a 17 year old died of starvation in prison in the West Bank. Will they face the death penalty as well?

Extra-legal killings have been occurring in the occupied territories for a long time (and now see a flare up in the West Bank where settlers are on a rampage.) Legalizing the killing of (only) Palestinians, as this law does, creates a new status quo: the entire Israeli people are now involved, since the penalty is legitimized and executed by the state by which they are represented, creating a form of Apartheid. The dehumanization of Palestinians progresses when it is formalized and integrated into the system in this way.

Which brings me back to Passover: it is a holiday that educates younger generations about the history of the Jews and their relationship to their G-d and the land they call their own. More importantly, though, it is an essentially biblical holiday. Here is what that means, best explained by Rabbi Dr. Ismar Schorsch, chancellor emeritus of The Jewish Theological Seminary (JTS).

“There are two strictures on Passover. Passover, as you know, is the moment when the clan becomes a nation. It is a momentous transition, but that national identity is not without its constraints within the biblical context. I will dwell for a moment on the origin of Egyptian slavery. Why didn’t our patriarchs end up in Egypt to begin with? And it seems to me that the structure of Genesis makes it very clear that before Israel could become a model nation-state, it had to go through the bitter experience of slavery. Granted that slavery and suffering does not necessarily translate into virtue, but it is a hopeful context for the structure of a better political society. (…) So, the first stricture that Israel faces is to remember its slavery, remember the cruelty and the political oppression which you suffered, for that is the polar opposite of the kingdom that I want you to create.

And the second stricture on this political entity coming out of Egypt is Mount Sinai. Mount Sinai follows the Exodus. The Exodus is not an end in itself. The Exodus confronts lawful behavior. Mount Sinai is the giving of the Torah. It is the giving of commandments. It is the imposition of principles and values that are to guide this political entity. The political entity created after the Exodus is not to be driven by greed; it is to be driven by constraints, morality, and fundamental principles. So, the nation to come out of Egypt had quite severe constraints placed upon itself in order to help it become the model political entity that might inspire the ancient world.” (Ref.)

If we juxtapose those strictures with what is currently done in the name of religion (different ones, no less, if you look at the American Secretary of Defense Hegseth’s emphasis on evangelical Christianity), the disparity between what is morally demanded of us, and what is actually unleashed upon the world, couldn’t be more obvious. No wonder, that even the mass media now shower us with headlines or opinion titles like America is Abandoning Morality, or America is now a Rogue Superpower.

The children, of course, are most likely to get harmed in the long term, if they are not outright killed to begin with. (The February 28 strikes in Iran hit two schools, using a new, untested weapon made by Lockheed Martin that unleashes an explosive barrage of tungsten pellets on its targets.)

As of 3/28 the US and Israeli military killed more than 230 kids. Children will also be disproportionally hit by the environmental damage produced by all the noxious metals and oil smoke from the burning tankers. In particularly small babies crawling close to the ground will absorb toxins both through skin and airways. Schooling is disrupted for long stretches, and access to medical care becomes close to impossible under live fire, as still in Gaza and Lebanon as well.

Hunger is harder on small bodies who succumb earlier, particularly when clean water is not available. (85% of all sewer treatment plants have been bombed to smithereens in Gaza and Israel opened dams that allow sewage to flood Gaza.)

None of that even includes the psychological damage from living under constant fear, losing parents, facing a future with no security guarantees and most likely living in refugee camps for years on end.

CHILDREN. Include them in your prayers around the Seder table.

Chag Sameach.

Music by Ernst Bloch.

Sign Selections.

Politics
Mar 30, 2026
1 Comments

On Saturday, we had a family outing to the No Kings Day rally in Livermore, California. Located in the DiabloRange, east of the San Francisco Bay Area, Livermore is a small town with some 80.000 inhabitants. It sported an earlier motto of “Live longer with Livermore.” During the 20th century, the dry regional climate attracted many suffering from tuberculosis to the various sanatoria in the city. The only thing that did indeed live longer, however, is a world record-setting light bulb. A 120+ year old 4-watt light bulb, called the Centennial Light, housed in the Livermore-Pleasanton Fire Department Firehouse Six, is still burning.

It used to be a railroad town, then focused on agriculture, mainly wheat production. Eventually, the vintners arrived. Since the 1950s, the city is home to two major research institutions: the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and the Sandia National Laboratories. The former, co-founded by Edward Teller and Ernest Lawrence, does science related to National Security, in particular nuclear weapons and other weapons of mass destruction. Sandia National Laboratories are in a similar business, including research on nuclear deterrence, arms control, and nonproliferation. It hosted some of the world’s earliest and fastest supercomputers, and is currently home to the Z Machine, the largest X-ray generator in the world, which is designed to test materials in conditions of extreme temperature and pressure. (Ref.)

It felt strange to be at a place so focused on nuclear weapon research, when we are in a war where the usage of nuclear devices is considered by the administration as a distinct possibility, or openly debated by the World Health Organization as a worst case scenario to be prepared for.

Home-made drawings…

The crowd on this sunny day brought home-made signs and cheerful sentiments, despite the expressed anger and revulsion on the placards. It was large; when I heard by the end of the day that the rallies attracted 8 million people across the US, I was not surprised. Even small towns mobilized significant numbers of protesters, many attending for the first time. In fact, two thirds of No Kings Day participants live in suburban, small town or rural areas, a 40% increase of protesters over last time, from outside big cities.

You wouldn’t know this by NYT reporting, which featured little, late, under the fold, and mostly cited skeptics, who turned out to be Republican leadership for the younger set. European mass media reported more prominently and in more details about what turned out to be the largest march in US history.

All age groups were represented, and a huge variety of causes addressed. Beyond the main refusal to bow to authoritarian power and anti-war proclamations, there were issues related to ICE, the abdication of congressional power, women’s and minority rights, racism, looting and self enrichment by the presidential family, and over and over complaints about lying and bending the truth.

Here they are, in no particular order other than that I really liked the last one of this set.

All pictures are mine with the exception of this one, taken in L.A. by a Getty photographer, Etienne Laurent. I included it because it is so apropos of our current national situation. Below was a participant in the Livermore protest, in less danger….

LAPD officers arrest a protester dressed as Lady Liberty in chains near the Metropolitan Detention Center during the “No Kings” national day of protest in Los Angeles on March 28, 2026.

We have to believe that the energy observed on Saturday will carry over to the mid-term elections. Assuming the administration and Supreme Court will not manage to significantly shrink the voter pool by all tricks of the trade at their command…

Listen to Springsteen….

In America, there are no kings.

Nature, Politics
Mar 27, 2026
1 Comments

At least that’s the assumption. To make sure it stays that way, you might want to add your voice to the chorus. Tomorrow, 3/28, is another day of planned marches and gatherings. You can read up on what it’s all about here, and find a convenient location near you here.

I will be out under sunny California skies, with blooms wherever you look and the occasional bluebird visiting. One might forget for a minute that we are bombarding other countries, spreading death and destruction. Then again, making our voices heard against the policies of the day might be a good reminder of what we stand for and/or fight against.