It was only a matter of time when  Donald Trump clamped down on California , the state he most hates. That ICE issue with immigrants is only a secondary matter.  He was waiting for any kind of protest to show this Democratic state who is the real boss. What he did in activating the National Guard and calling in the Marines without the involvement of Governor Gavin Newsom has happened in the past. Trump is out to embarrass Newsom and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass to tarnish their image. Most fearfully, he is merely testing out how he can refine his quest to become dictator. Can't the courts check him?  They have no enforcement capability.  Trump controls the Department Defense, Department of Justice and the National Guard. Even Time magazine agrees with me. Oh well, the worse is yet to come.  On this nostalgic Tuesday, I reach back to Chapter 6 of my book,  SIMPLE SOLUTIONS for Planet Earth , titled,  Blackout:  Six Hours to Seattle.   I summar...

  I've previously been to Anchorage twice in my life, both during the period of the longest day, when the sun never did set.  The first time was around 40 years ago.  To quote from my   24June2018 blog . I remember the previous and only other time I was here in Anchorage, maybe a third of a century ago, also around the longest day.  I participated in a hydrogen conference at the University of Alaska, and after that was over, joined a salmon fishing expedition.  Paid a fortune to be taken by van with eight others a two-hour ride away to be dropped off at a river.  It was a total disaster  There was only about a 50-yard portion of a river, where there were a hundred or more fishermen.  Only native Americans can fish wherever they want.   We were provided a long pole, line and a hook with some cloth material attached to it.   At this time of year the salmon returning upstream do not eat.  You need to irritate them so tha...

I was this week walking to the dining room at 15 Craigside, when one of the residents walked up to me and said something to the effect:   Crichton and Patterson stole your idea about an eruption on the Big Island .  So the next day I went to my computer and found that  Eruption , by Crichton and Patterson, was #1 on the  New York Times  fiction book list. How did their book come together? Michael Crichton  was a Harvard-trained doctor who went straight into writing, creating  Jurassic Park  and other adventures. His first book under his name was  The Andromeda Strain .  All told, his books sold over 200 million copies, with a dozen adapted into films. He is the only writer to have a number one book, movie and TV show in the same year. Born in 1942 and passed away in 2008 at the age of 66.   His wife Sherri found parts of an unfinished novel centered around a huge volcanic eruption in Hawaii, and thought this should be comp...