Architectural detail of a historic home in our City Different.
Non-linear, rounded and textured, organic adobe structures are one of many charming aspects that make Santa Fe so picturesque.
SUENOSDEUOMI'S RUMINATIONS AND PERSPECTIVE
THANK YOU BERNIE!
Yep, I voted the first morning of early voting in my community.
Yep, I voted for Bernard Sanders, not because I need access to a free education, I already had that, not because I want free hand outs, certainly not because I am looking for a boyfriend as was claimed early on in the campaign, and not because Bernie is the most charming of them all, although I do find him endearing and find it amazing that he is not more pissed off, but manages to stay civil and on point even during idiotic interviews and irrelevant questioning and unfair coverage through most of his campaign.
I even got to get a peek of the real man when he came to Santa Fe on very short notice and gave a speech in a hall filled to capacity on a Friday afternoon, when most were committed to work, yet still hundreds like me outside the hall that got treated to an impromptu greeting by the couple and not so short of a speech by Bernie. This was my first sighting and attendance of an event of a presidential nominee. 8 years earlier I attempted to attend Barack Obama's event in the evening, but a very long line of cars made it impossible, we were ordered to turn around
I was truly overjoyed when I heard from my friend Amy, the owner and chef of Venus, a farm to table restaurant in Berkley CA, that Bernie Sanders with entourage was on his way to have a bite at her establishment. Amy is an amazingly creative cook and sweet friend that surprised me and my friends with a truly delicious send-off 12 years ago, before I left the bay area for good to return to the City Different in the Land of Enchantment. Guess what Bernie asked for in one of the finest eateries in Berkley. Fish & chips is what he wanted and bless her heart, Amy did not question his order, did not try to convince him to eat something better and healthier, but gave him what he wanted as she recognized he simply was looking for fuel after another very large and successful rally in Oakland.
THANK YOU BERNIE!
Yesterday's primaries were disappointing for us Bernie supporters. I had hoped New Mexico would feel the bern, he came short last I read 6%. Democratic voter turn out was around 30-something % of eligible voters. Higher then before, but surely nothing to brag about. New Mexico's primaries are closed and I could not convince those Independents I know to switch their allegiance to the Democratic party, if only to give their vote to Bernie. This seemed too much to ask from most Progressives. Main media had declared Hillary the winner, the Presumptive Democratic Presidential Nominee the night before, counting pledged votes unfairly, by delegates, that include lobbyists, committed long before Bernie was even in the running. That is what we call a rigged system.
But Bernie Sanders already won with the millions he mobilized and energized and spoke to their hearts and their minds, with integrity and intelligence and a vision for a better life for Americans, a system that serves the people more then for profit corporations. The profit motive should have no place in education, and basic health care. Prisons should not be run for profit, elections should not be bought. Independents should not have to pay with their tax dollars for elections they can not participate in. There is a lot wrong with our current system. Bernie brought the main issues to the table and proposed sane solutions, I for one am very grateful to Bernie Sanders and his wife, Dr. Jane Sanders for the trouble they have put themselves through for us during this last, long and intense year. They have succeeded beyond expectations. Bernie is spearheading a movement for social justice, it will go on far beyond the elections for US president this coming November. Bernie Sanders earned the right to carry his message through and in to the democratic convention in July to make the most of it.
So it saddens me to feel no elation about the US having it's first female presumptive presidential nominee in Hillary Clinton. I, a woman of a certain age, close to Hillary's age, am in accord with Naomi Klein in that electing according to gender is a very shallow feminism and just is not good enough. I am a first generation US immigrant, a drop out who did not believe in mainstream culture, including politics, although I always voted in national and most local elections. Over the last year, since I got very excited about Bernie Sander's running with his message straight out of Occupy and of course earlier the civil rights movement, I have been given an education. I devoured most everything written in regard to these primary elections. I learned more about Hillary and the Clintons then I ever wanted to know. I don't believe them to be evil as so many on the far right and far left seem to believe. In fact I do not believe in evil, basta, but consider it an outdated religious concept, I find too often in posts on social media from the extreme sides. We tend to judge people and their intentions too harshly. What I do find though is that Hillary has shown bad judgment, despite her intelligence, again and again and keeps standing on the wrong, the establishment side of issues, on the other side from where I am which is deeply troubling. This can be seen in her statements in regard to Israel and lack of such in regard to Palestine, in her acceptance of the death penalty, her disregard of whistle blowers, her promotion of GMO crop world wide, her lack of stance against Walmart where she was once a board member, her support of TPP and especially her willingness to go to war, to be aggressive as if she needed to prove that as a woman she too could act like a man. Sadly this is not the kind of woman I would like to see in the White House.
Drumpf, the emotional retard with the vocabulary of a 6 year old, will be worse, I have no doubt, although not all of my facebook contacts share this view with me, very troubling. It may come to a vote of keeping out the unmentionable, we will see, a lot of water yet to flow under the bridge.
My Sweeties
Sumo & Isabella pose
at historic entry on Old Santa Fe trail
on our Sunday morning walk about.
Sumo
Sumo's ears after today's spa treatment will no longer float in his food bowl. His ears got a trim for the first time from me in his 10 years of being alive.
What We Can Be
"What We Can Be" by fervent Bernie supporter Chris Lockett
Bernie heads a moral movement with roots in Occupy, and prior the labor - and social justice movements. Bernie supporters are not free loaders, are not simply upset about not having gotten a raise or not having advanced in to the middle class or up from wherever they find themselves on the social climbing pole, for laughing out loud.
I believe the US needs a fundamental change, a re-evaluation of our values. Corporate control has to be reigned in. Citizens United has to be reversed.
US manipulation in foreign affairs for it's own good has to come to an end. Unquestioned support of Israel has to give way to a more fair appraisal with an insistence that Palestinians are given a fair shake. Money funneled in to the military complex, 601 Billion in 2015, more then 50% of the overall US budget, should be drastically reduced.
Let us redirect those funds in to a commitment toward a fossil fuel free, green, sustainable future that advances alternative sources of energy. The US could and should lead in it's scientific research, it's implementation and creation of green product lines. I would like nothing more then for the focus of our nearby Los Alamos National Laboratory to shift from the defense industry to developing green energy. Climate change is real and Bernie is the one that makes it his top priority.
Let us be bold and rebuild our crumbling infrastructures and create jobs for Americans. Let us create social support systems such as a single payer health care system for people in need rather then profit for the insurance and pharmaceutical industries.
Let us make education a priority and start with free access to Community Colleges. Let's stop the profiteering of loan sharks from students. There ought to be a cap in the single digits of what is legal and fair profit made off the poor.
Last but not least, as a 'Recovered Catholic' I am so very grateful that Bernie Sanders unlike every repugnant Republican presidential nominee, has not forced religion down our throats. I can relate to his sense of us being in this together, of feeling the pain of another and of synchronicities that seem to guide his seeking the presidential nomination.
What I can not relate to, is Republicans taking away women's health care with their unwarranted attacks on Planned Parenthood, with closures of abortion clinics, with wanting to take away women's choices in pushing to make abortions illegal, going as far as even wanting to criminalize the women choosing an abortion. While the loser finds a return to coat hangers acceptable, women find the repugnant Republican stance on women's rights absolutely unacceptable. We are moving forward, not backward!
Thankfully Bernie polls best in defeating the repugnant current front runner for the presidency. Imagine vane, vindictive and thin-skinned Drumpf in control of nuclear power and the most powerful military in the world! Strangely this option is not an April 1st joke.
Change is possible. It will not happen over night. It's a process that asks for our engagement and the political will to carry it forward.
"Another world is not only possible, she is on her way. On a quiet day, I can hear her breathing." Arundhati Roy
(All images off social media.)
With Sumo @ Our Dog Park
With Sumo at the dog park on our first visit this year.
We were both in need of a lift in mood, so I gave Sumo a lift on our scooter across our busiest road on a busy Friday afternoon to our nearby open space, the only near downtown area where dogs are legally allowed off lead. Sumo behaved exemplary, stayed in his open crate across heavy traffic on a busy Friday afternoon. He does love our outings. Sumo to my relief remembered his social graces at the dog park. He allowed packs of dogs to check him out without objections and let huge dogs lumber over him, something he is not too fond of, but tolerated. We encountered quiet a few little dogs which used to be rather rare, but the times they are changing. Santa Feans these days choose all kinds of dogs besides the ever popular Chihuahuas, Pitbulls and Cattle dogs and mutts of unspecified breeds.
Later, when we walked our 'hood with Isabella, Sumo responded to Isabella's tease with joyful mock attacks that entailed 90 degree in air body flips that brought the smile back on my face.
Wondering What It All May Mean
Isabella & Sumo
outside the Supreme Court Library
after the announcement of Scalia's passing.
Voter ID
So glad John Oliver is back, missed him.
Grown up in Europe, I have carried identification on me at all times for half a century by now. Proof of identification seems a simple, common-sense, practical part of life, so I could not understand the resistance to such from liberals and democrats. Little did I understand the trouble many American citizens may have in obtaining such. Our Land of Enchantment in particular may feature Native American babies born on reservations not hospitals and Hispanics, here for generations, never having bothered to obtain passports and those elderly that never drove or lost their licenses. Demand for voter identification has to come with an assurance of easy access of obtaining such, possibly with a grandfathering-in option. Until, I will join the chorus against the right wing demand for voter ID.
Valentino
Pretty Kitty was our Valentine's surprise in 2007. In search of a new home he had ended up with a neighbor allergic to cats. A sudden invasion of mice had made me rather amenable to offering temporary refuge to this pretty kitty, especially with a snow storm in the forecast.
He earned his life long keep with us, having dispersed those mice in only 3 days, they all fled over to our neighbor (I was told so only later.) Relief, I never had to encounter evidence of any carnage! I am terrified of mice, this was our first and our only and our last time any were ever in our home.
We did discover the proper owner or custodian and we agreed to us giving this pretty kitty a temporary home - until she was settled out of state in a new job later that year. When the time came our Pretty Kitty made it plenty clear that he was going nowhere. He had chosen, no doubt, our pups as his new companions and us as his new home!
Happy Valentine's Day to all of you from all of us.
May this day bring you many blessings, much love, some light and especially laughter.
Coming To A Theatre Near You Friday February 12th
Michael Moore's 1. film in 6 years, finally!
Let's go watch Where to Invade Next.
Meanwhile let's wish Michael a full recovery
& let's hope for us that there will be more movies of his in our future.
Share!
Cutie Pies
My cutie pies waiting, tethered outside the farmers market while I was returning empty egg cartons to farmers.
Bill Maher's 60th Birthday Request
So glad Bill Maher is back, in top form too, my world is not the same without his perspective, I missed him these last few months. "The youngest of the old" those in their sixties, outrageous, sometimes too harsh for my taste, but real and on point most often, with a willingness to tolerate differences of opinion. I sure would like to hear Bill Maher pose some real questions to President Obama. So sign on, if you would too.
RIP David Bowie - 1.10.2016
David Bowie, on his birthday, 1.8.2016. smiling at wife Iman. Photo supposedly taken by Jimmy King.
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