sonora2sonoma

hoomalimali
Photographer, poet, fellow traveler on the road of life.

  • A Step Toward Tyranny

    hoomalimali

    There’s a report in today’s Washington Post that describes a bill introduced this week in the Arizona legislature that “would open up protests to anti-racketeering legislation, targeting protesters with the same laws used to combat organized crime syndicates. It would also allow police to seize the assets of anyone involved in a protest that at some point becomes violent. It recently passed the state Senate on a party-line vote and is now before the House.”

    It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out the impact this type of legislation could have, if enacted, on our Constitutionally guaranteed rights of free speech and free assembly. We must be vigilant, lest the enemies of truth succeed in their efforts to stifle discourse and obliterate reason.

     

     

  • Theodore Roosevelt on Critical Discourse

    hoomalimali

    To anyone who might take issue with any posts they find critical of our so-called president, I offer the following comments on the subject by former president Theodore Roosevelt, as recounted in Snopes http://www.snopes.com/theodore-roosevelt-on-criticizing-th…/ from an editorial by Roosevelt that appeared in the May 18, 1918 edition of the Kansas City Star: ” The President is merely the most important among a large number of public servants. He should be supported or opposed exactly to the degree which is warranted by his good conduct or bad conduct, his efficiency or inefficiency in rendering loyal, able, and disinterested service to the Nation as a whole. Therefore it is absolutely necessary that there should be full liberty to tell the truth about his acts, and this means that it is exactly necessary to blame him when he does wrong as to praise him when he does right. Any other attitude in an American citizen is both base and servile. To announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we are to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public. Nothing but the truth should be spoken about him or any one else. But it is even more important to tell the truth, pleasant or unpleasant, about him than about any one else.”

  • Political Favoritism in Presidential Press Briefings

    hoomalimali

    Excluding selected news organizations (CNN, the New York Times, Politico and the Los Angeles Times) from being allowed to cover press briefings is a shameful abuse of executive power that should be condemned by anyone with a modicum of respect for the Constitution. A free press is vital to the existence of any democracy and anyone who seeks to weaken this institution is an enemy of the People of the United States. The so-called president, and all who choose to support him in this shameful effort, should be roundly condemned for not objecting to this action.

    In the words of the Washington Post’s Executive Editor, Marty Baron, ” It’s appalling that the White House would exclude news outlets like the New York Times, CNN, Politico, the Los Angeles Times, and BuzzFeed from its publicly announced briefings. This is an undemocratic path that the administration is traveling. There is nothing to be gained from the White House restricting the public’s access to information. We are currently evaluating what our response will be if this sort of thing happens again.” While the Wall Street Journal was present at the briefing, it said in a statement afterward that it hadn’t been aware of the exclusions and “had we known at the time, we would not have participated, and we will not participate in such closed briefings in the future.”

    While the above-named news organizations were barred from the briefing this morning, Breitbart was allowed to attend. Cherry-picking who can and cannot attend news briefings smacks of favoritism and amounts to an unprecedented attempt to politicize a process that, by its very definition–a free press–must remain free of political influence. While such undignified shenanigans should come as no surprise from our boorish so-called leader, those in Congress who will likely turn a blind eye to this do so at their own risk. Unfortunately, their intransigence also places our democracy at risk.

  • “Fake news” and “Fake presidents”

    hoomalimali

    While the so-called president was busy accusing the news media of reporting “fake” news during his speech to CPAC on Friday, he, as reported in Friday’s edition of the New York Times, made five false claims and two misleading ones.

    In light of trump’s veracity, or abysmal lack thereof, it’s worth considering the advice of Brian Narelle, as offered in the letters to the editor section of the today’s Santa Rosa Press Democrat, who said “I think we could all benefit from a Trump-English Dictionary. It would be simple to create. Just reverse everything he says. ‘Senate Democrats have screwed things up royally’ means his administration is screwing things up royally. ‘The 9th Circuit Court is in chaos and turmoil’ means his administration is in chaos and turmoil. ‘The dishonest media’ means they have been reporting his lies. In this new political landscape, up is down and left is right. This explains why I literally feel dizzy every time Donald Trump speaks.”

    Given the nature and intensity of trump’s attacks and accusations, on any number of subjects, it’s hard not to see parallels with the concept of projection–a theory of psychology defined by Britannica https://www.britannica.com/topic/projection-psychology  as “a form of defense in which unwanted feelings are displaced onto another person, where they then appear as a threat from the external world. A common form of projection occurs when an individual, threatened by his own angry feelings, accuses another of harboring hostile thoughts.”

    And then there’s his hypocrisy: It seems ironic to listen to trump denounce the FBI over “leaks,” when it was barely a few months ago that he was relishing in the leaking of John Podesta’s , and others’ emails to the press.

    None of this seems to faze his followers however, who appear to have been given a slow-acting form of Kool-Aid that hasn’t yet kicked in. If and when it finally does, I wonder how the orange-tinged golden boy will handle diminished adoration?

  • Reflections on The Food Cycle

    hoomalimali

    Reflecting

    on the tendency of some people

    to confirm the title ‘arsehole’

    upon those toward whom

    they feel no particular fondness,

    whimsy suggests another way

    to view a thing

    upon which we all depend daily

    to maintain our nutrient stream

    trouble-free.

     

    What if,

    rather than disparage the organ

    that justifies our unlikely but efficient plumbing regime,

    that enables our daily discharge,

    we sing praises instead for its efficiency–

    its supreme ability

    to sweep away all of yesterday’s sins

    with a clean bowl and the promise of a better tomorrow.

     

    With all the arseholes

    populating the arenas

    of government, politics and religion

    in these uncertain times,

    an abundance of arseholes will become a necessity

    in order to facilitate the sheer volume

    of the mind-numbing effluent

    headed our way

    over the next four years.

     

    9 February 2017

    Petaluma, CA

    Tim Konrad

  • News of the Day

    hoomalimali

    Each day brings more news

    of the chicanery of the trump administration

    as the man with the orange hair

    seeks to re-shape everything political

    into something more in his Image.

     

    And each day

    the world I wake up to

    appears less and less like the world I grew up in,

    came of age in, raised a family in

    and came to think of as normal, stable,

    safe and dependable–

    something you could rely on,

    like the promise of the morning sun.

     

    On this day,

    I no longer have that feeling!

    I no longer have the comfort of knowing

    that the troubles plaguing so many other places

    in the world

    are not ones that could affect us here at home

    with our geographical advantage

    of being separated by oceans

    from the chaos on other shores.

    Those boundaries

    and the sense of reassurance they provided–

    real or imagined–

    were already blurred

    rendered less immutable

    by social media and ICBMs

    yet

    prior to the ascendance of regime d’orange

    whatever threats were lurking

    appeared distant, abstract, ideological even,

    hardly on the horizon

    and completely devoid

    of the uncertainty and immediacy

    introduced by the seeming impulsivity

    and unpredictability

    of the orange one

    as he gleefully issues edicts in the guise of directives

    while his Rasputin,

    Darth Bannon,

    whispers in his ear.

     

    As the dance proceeds,

    bizarrely entertaining

    as it may be to witness,

    one can’t help but wonder

    Who is leading whom?

     

    2 February 2017

    Petaluma, CA

    Tim Konrad

  • On Viewing a Portrait of a Woman Painted in 1666

    hoomalimali

    imrs-3

    A Young Woman Feeding a Parrot–Caspar Netscher–1666–National Gallery of Art

     

    She lived so long ago

    yet feels so present

    the distinction fades.

    She seems so close

    I could almost touch her,

    feel the warmth of the sun on her cheek.

    The light on her face

    illumines her:

    The light

    soft, luminous

    revealing,

    resurrects her

    from across the centuries

    if only for a moment;

    captured

    like a firefly in a bottle . .

    A portrait

    frozen in time.

     

    10 January 2017

    Petaluma, CA

    Tim Konrad

     

     

     

  • When Mom Went to the Retirement Home

    hoomalimali

    2016-11-10_salmon-beach_im_5543-06They realized

    there wasn’t going to be enough money

    for her to remain in her home

    the home where, for  39 years,

    she had spent her days and her nights

    growing old with her husband

    the home where they gathered on holidays

    where the grandkids came to visit

    and their many friends would congregate

    on special occasions

    the home

    where they came together

    to support their father when his days grew short

    and his presence, his spirit,

    grew weaker

    until the pull from that domain beyond

    grew so strong

    he could no longer resist it.

    The home of history, of family,

    of memories of good times and bad,

    of tears, of laughter, joy and sorrow,

    The home that soon

    would be a home no longer.

    They broke the news to her

    gently

    but news such as that

    does not break gently

    and neither did she.

    They found her a new home

    one whose inhabitants, like her,

    had outgrown their independence

    through ill health, bad genes

    or poor planning,

    Souls, like her,

    who no longer were regarded as capable

    of the self-management of their affairs.

    Her house would be sold, she was informed,

    to cover the cost of her care

    at the retirement home.

    Her belongings

    save the things she was allowed to take with her

    were disposed of

    without her participation

    or assent

    Having lost control

    and not in agreement

    with the changes she found herself subjected to,

    she entered this new

    unfamiliar territory

    armed with little more than her dog–

    a derelict Chihuahua of dubious provenance

    with few prospects

    and a dislike of peeing outside

    a dog that depended on her for his existence

    much as she depended on him for hers.

    A match not made in Heaven

    but one that, for her,

    enabled her to accept her situation

    once she realized

    her dog was beginning to adjust to being there.

    3  January 2017

    Petaluma, CA

    Tim Konrad

  • Already Taken

    hoomalimali

    img_1493

    I’m trying to create a passable password on Twitter

    so I can check out the tangerine twitterer.

    It seems practically everyone is on Twitter these days;

    it’s one of the reasons I haven’t been among them

    but now, provided with a motive, although a dubious one at best,

    with mounting trepidation, I take the plunge–

    I type the password I use on my blog

    (I know that’s not advisable, but I’m lazy about such things)

    and get a screen that says it’s already taken

    so I try using “already taken”

    and, guess what?

    “already taken” is already taken!

    Twitter suggests I try “already90513040”

    or “already38281025”–

    either of which would be guaranteed to make me feel

    grateful & contented

    every time I was presented with the opportunity

    to type out 15 characters in order to log in.

    This reminds me

    of the time I encountered similar difficulties

    in establishing a passable password on a Microsoft site:

    I first offered a respectable password

    which, I was informed, was already taken.

    I then posited a proposed password

    intended to achieve the dual purposes

    of both gaining access to the site

    while also including an unvarnished appraisal

    of my thoughts on the subject of passwords

    in general:

    “Fuckbillgates,” I submitted,

    feeling, with a bit of smugness,

    that the likelihood was low

    that anyone had chosen that particular

    combination of words.

    My sense of smugness did not survive the response

    when the onscreen reply said

    “We’re sorry! Fuckbillgates is already taken.

    Would you like to use Fuckbillgates38?”

    I took them up on their offer.

    2 January 2017

    Petaluma, CA

    Tim Konrad

  • Joy

    hoomalimali

    kate wolf music festival 2016

    Joy is a delicate thing

    a fragile thing

    a sumptuous jewel

    hanging by a thread,

    easily upended

    and so often squandered;

    a thing most of us seek

    yet many fail to recognize.

     

    It sits beside us

    awaiting recognition

    clambering for attention,

    “Hey, look over here, Stupid!”

    try too hard

    and you’ll look right past it;

    for “it” isn’t an it at all

    but an attitude

    a state of mind

    a condition that has no boundaries

    and is only conditioned

    by the limitations

    we place upon our expectations

    by our having expectations

    in the first place . . .

     

    The limitations

    we place upon ourselves

    are just that–

    limitations

    and nothing more.

     

    No one is making us be this way

    or that way.

    Nobody has that power over us

    unless we give it to them.

     

    The power is ours

    to choose how we will view the world

    and the world we see

    is the world we create with that power

    each moment of our lives

    as we have done since the beginning

    with our without our awareness or approval.

     

    I choose joy!

     

    1 January 2017

    Petaluma, CA

    Tim Konrad