No Kings Demonstration

Creating Sign (Fairfax) - Marin County  2025

No Kings Crowd (Fairfax) - Marin County  2025

. . . in Fairfax. A goodly crowd! Lots of cars honking as well.

Contrail

Airplane, Contrail - Marin County  2025

"And Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, pledged the agency’s support last month for a fight involving so-called chemtrails, a debunked theory that the white condensation lines streaming behind airplanes are toxic, or could even be used for nefarious purposes."

Source: New York Times: Trump’s Return to Power Elevates Ever Fringier Conspiracy Theories

Territorial Dispute

Northern Territories Sign (Hakodate) - Japan  2024

"Even after Japan accepted the Potsdam Declaration and made it clear its intent to surrender, Soviet forces continued its offensive against Japan and occupied all of the Four Northern Islands from 28 August 1945 to 5 September 1945.The Northern Territories have been under illegal occupation by the Soviet Union, and then Russia."

- Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan

I saw this sign as I was walking back from my ocean view walk. 

Ljubljana Food Tour

Food Tour (Ljubljana) - Slovenia  2019

Gnocchi, from the first stop on our food tour . . . maybe made from Hokkaido squash.

Huh. It seems like that's about all that I have photographically, other than our keepsake certificate that we got at the end. The tour was a lot of fun, though, with the discussion of Melania wisely postponed until the last stop.

Foodwalks Certificate (Ljubljana) - Slovenia  2019

Maxwell Sightems - 2

Jefferson (Maxwell) - Colusa County 2018

Christmas (Maxwell) - Colusa County  2018

We the people of the 23 counties of Northern California, hereafter known as Jefferson, formally demand an immediate Article 4, Section 3, (U.S.) state split. We declare the State of California is in open rebellion and insurrection against the government of the United States.

Governor J. Brown, Lt Governor G. Newsom, Senate Pro Tem K. León, Speaker A Rendon, States Attorney General X. Becerra, Senator K. Harris, and the majority of voting members of the California Legislature, have openly and publicly declared war on the government of the United States.

Ironic, indeed, that Colusa County is Jerry Brown's future home!

Colusa County Oak Trees - 2

Oaks, Dark Sky - Colusa County  2018

Oaks, Two Hills -  Colusa County  2018

So anyway, Jerry Brown is planning to build a retirement house in Colusa County.

Hope he's considering turning it into a B&B for at least some of the time. I'd definitely go.

First Bumper Sticker

Cory Booker Bumper Sticker - Marin County  2018

You saw it here first. Web site.

Berkeley Demonstrations / Tear Gas

Berkeley Campus, Tear Gas - Berkeley  1970

Berkeley Campus, Tear Gas (vertical) - Berkeley  1970

Not 2017. Photos taken in 1970.

Quiz: which American president uttered the phrase, "If it takes a bloodbath, then let's get it over with"?

Answer: Ronald Reagan, although he wasn't president at the time, just governor of California.

Photos taken with a Nikon F on Kodachrome film.

Agave

Agave - Sausalito  2016

I took this photo ourside the Sausalito Fire Department building last November 8. Election day.

I'd like to think that the spiky, shadowy forms of the plant act as symbolic omens of impending disaster.

Austin, Nevada

Serbian Christmas, Trump 2016 (Austin) - Nevada  2016

Painting (Austin) - Nevada  2016

OK, so Mike had been through here before, 23 years ago. And what had caught his eye at the time?

Don't know if consistency is . . . good, or a hobgoblin.

Painting (Austin) - Nevada  1993

Stickers

Truck (Lake Merced) - San Francisco  2015

He said that as he drives down the freeway people give him a "thumbs up."

Right.

. . . from the archives #76: Cops, Market Street, San Francisco, 2003

Cops, Market Street - San Francisco  2003

March, 2003: 10 years ago. Mike was commuting into the city via the Larkspur Ferry. He had just gotten off the ferry and was heading towards the underground Muni station, when he saw this group of police. Of course he had to stop and fumble in his rolling daypack for his Leica Minilux to take a photo.

Right. It's coming back now. In February of 2003, Colin Powell had made a speech outlining the certainty of WMDs in Iraq; preparations were being made to go to war. So these are crowd-control cops, getting ready to take on war protesters later in the day.

Here's James Fallow's take on the anniversary.

And an interesting quote from Ta-Nehisi Coates:

I remember being out during one of the big anti-war protests and watching the crowds stream down Broadway. I remember thinking, "You fools believe that you matter? You think what you're saying means anything?"

In fact it meant a lot. It meant that you got to firmly and loudly say, "No. Not in my name." It meant being on the side of those who warned against the seductive properties of power, and opposing those who would bask in it.

Monticello Utah

Blue Mountain Foods (Monticello) - Utah  2012

Orrin Hatch Sign (Monticello) - Utah  2012

Cello pronounced like cellophane.

Top: Grocery store where beer was purchased.

Bottom: Orrin Hatch campaign sign. Mike's trip was in the runup to a major election, but there was hardly any sign of it in the states he visited. Maybe some ads and stuff in New Mexico.

BTW, Orrin Hatch won.

Vegas

Bellagio (Las Vegas) - Nevada  2012

"One night last May, some twenty financiers and politicians met for dinner in the Tuscany private dining room at the Bellagio hotel in Las Vegas. . . . The richest man in the room was Leon Cooperman, a Bronx-born, sixty-nine-year-old billionaire. . . .  in an interview and in a speech, [Cooperman] has gone so far as to draw a parallel between Obama’s election and the rise of the Third Reich."

“Super-Rich Irony” by Chrystia Freeland - The New Yorker

Mike had intended to stay overnight in Las Vegas, but realized that he could bypass it and head directly into Utah. So all he saw of Vegas this time was glimpses from the freeway, including this fleeting look at the Bellagio.

So that’s what goes on at the Bellagio! But wait! Didn’t Mike stay there once, back in the 90’s?

Yes. He did.

Ansel Adams' Darkroom & James Watt

A. Adams' House, James Watt - Monterey County  1984

I visited Ansel Adams' house in 1984 (alas, he was recently deceased.) In his office I found one little detail that I liked: a picture of James Watt, Ronald Reagan's Secretary of the Interior, tacked to the wall with the handwritten notation: "Darts, anyone?"

Per Wikipedia: “During a 2001 interview, Watt applauded the Bush administration energy strategy and said its prioritization of oil drilling and coal mining above conservation is just what he recommended during the early 1980s. ‘Everything Cheney's saying, everything the president's saying – they're saying exactly what we were saying 20 years ago, precisely ... ’”

James Watt made Time Magazines list of "Top Ten Worst Cabinet Members."

Drone Simulation

Drone Simulation - Marin County  2012

. . . seen in the Fairfax Festival AM parade.

Maverick Grits

Dan found the recipe using his iPhone . . . whoa. Check out the list of wonderful ingredients.

Most of the stuff was purchased at "Your Dekalb Farmers Market" which would be worthy of a post all by itself, except that "Your Dekalb Farmers Market" has a no-photography policy. (Which policy is also shared by Whole Foods, by the way.) Their website is here.

The dish was quite good: highly recommended. We won't go into the likely calorie count.

Photos: Maverick Grits—Atlanta, 2010; Shrimp, Scallops etc—Atlanta, 2010; Assembling Meal—Atlanta, 2010

Zell Miller

What an exquisite surprise! A nice little tribute to Zell Miller, right there at the highway rest stop in Georgia!

As I'm sure you'll recall, Mr. Miller was the senator who in 2004:

cosponsored the Federal Marriage Amendment to the United States Constitution. If it had been ratified, it would have declared that marriage in the United States only consists of the union of a man and a woman, and would have prohibited state and the federal government from recognizing same-sex marriages and same-sex domestic partnerships. On March 11 of that year, he introduced the Broadcast Decency Responsibility and Enforcement Act, that would have created a Council of Decency to advise the Federal Communications Commission on standards of decency in broadcasting. The Council would have consisted of three individuals from the ministry, three broadcast industry representatives, and three school teachers. The money from penalties from obscene, indecent, and profane broadcasts would have been given to faith-based organizations.

—Wikipedia

How pleasant for Mr. Miller, to be recognized in one's own time.

Photo: Zell Miller—Georgia, 2010

Jimmy Carter

President Jimmy Carter's Moral Equivalent of War Speech was a speech in which United States President Jimmy Carter addressed the United States on April 17, 1977.

This speech was notable because he wore a sweater, instead of a suit, and called it a fireside chat . . .

Carter called for a 10 point plan. He asked people to cut oil imports to half by 1985, but oil imports doubled in the next 20 years instead. He said people who insist on driving large cars should be forced to pay more. He said people should turn down their thermostat to 65 degrees, except at night when it should be 55 degrees.

The phrase "moral equivalent of war" may have come from the classic essay "The Moral Equivalent of War" derived from the last speech given by American psychologist and philosopher William James, delivered at Stanford University in 1906, in which "James considered one of the classic problems of politics: how to sustain political unity and civic virtue in the absence of war or a credible threat..." and "...sounds a rallying cry for service in the interests of the individual and the nation," ideas mirrored in much of Carter's philosophy.

—Wikipedia

Cutting oil imports! Paying more for large cars!!

How naïve.

Photo: Bag & Postcard Purchased at the Jimmy Carter Museum—Atlanta, 2010