 fine peninsula in the creek for his house to rest upon.
It was lovely little cottage, really, with wonderful sweeping 360 degree views. But it was an unusually wet season that year, and each storm undercut the newly formed bank a little more. Finally one day the mother of all storms hit, with two inches of rain in less than an hour.
The last I saw of that house, it was sailing merrily down a flood-swollen torrent of red muddy water. He never did rebuild, and the last I heard, the land was up for auction to another unsuspecting tourist wanting a piece of red rock country.
Those same sunset colors of pink and red and orange give depth and movement to the rock formations in rainy weather. After a storm, the Bell Rock sandstone formation is transformed by the water. The rock turns ominously dark, soaking up the moisture. When the storm is over, the rock releases the moisture in a cascade of short-term waterfalls that reflect the turquoise blue of the rain-washed skies overhead.
The trees also look cleaner after a storm, more green. A texture of pine cones and gray-green juniper berries drop after the rains to form windrows on the road surface. They skitter under the tires of passing cars and make walking uncertain at best.
Rocks wash down on the road, softball-sized pieces of rock that roll across the roads in crests of storm-driven water.
The drive up Oak Creek, from Pump House Wash to the canyon rim can be particularly treacherous as boulders as big as washing machines are undercut by the rains, and drop suddenly down on the road. They create sudden roadblocks to unwary drivers, cracking windshields and crushing fenders.
In red rock country, weather warrants our close attention. It is a shift of energy, a reminder of our human helplessness in the face of chaos. We can try to stand up against it, but water has its own way.
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When I was a sixth former, one of the most useful classes that I attended (I am speaking in hindsight) was General Studies, primarily because it encouraged kids to read newspapers and watch the news. And I’m not so sure the same could be said nowadays.
At ‘A’ level we did a 3 month module on politics. It didn’t go deeply into political philosophy but at least it signposted some doors for curiosity. One of the assignments we were given was to identify the difference between terrorism and armed struggle. At the time it was very topical because it was late 1982 and the IRA were regularly launching bombing campaigns – meanwhile the world was beset by terrorist groups like Black September and the Red Brigades. It seemed worthwhile exploring the reasons behind their existence and to understand what they were fighting for.
After a couple of days of enquiring and reading, I became stuck. The IRA managed to be freedom fighters, terrorists and gangsters according to who you asked. So I butted into a conversation between my father and my Uncle Tom (yes, really) when I heard their chat take a turn into current affairs. I explained my confusion at the schizophrenic interpretation of the PIRA and its activities. I recall receiving the following explanation from my uncle:
“No matter what the organisation, its label is dependent on your views of their goals but no matter how you view them their existence depends on the absence of a democratic resolution and they will always come to be dominated by psychopaths.”
Today, every time I look at terrorism I always refer back to this simple statement given to me by my relative. In recent weeks I’ve been reverse-engineering threats and fears made over the Brexit process. It is becoming apparent that our democracy is nothing more than a replication of the Wizard of Oz. The curtain has dropped and we see John Bercow operating the bells and whistles of our democratic process and it’s obviously a total sham.
I’ve read numerous threats of civil war or disorder based on the undemocratic two step that our parliament has been doing to avoid enacting the results of a legal national plebiscite and of course the absence of a democratic resolution meets one of the prerequisites I mentioned earlier for terrorism.
I can’t be the only one thinking this. The number of talking heads on TV hand-wringing about the rise of the hard right. Am I now hard right for advocating a WTO exit from the EU and merely for speculating at the reaction by 17 million betrayed voters? Am I apparently stoking disorder? Are we Leavers really all Thomas Mairs?
Meanwhile, has anyone else noticed that the pace of European integration has picked up markedly in recent weeks? Emmanuel Macron has started negotiations with Frau Merkel about creating a supranational superstate within the EU supranational super state, almost like they are expecting the EU to disintegrate like a hatching duck’s egg – a new Franco-German creation pop its fluffy head out of the shattered ovum? Is anyone out there concerned about a new Gross Deutschland with a nuclear arsenal? We’ll have to see what the gilets jaunes and the AFD have to say about this but in the meantime we need to concentrate our minds about fighting off the wholesale hiking off of British democracy to which ever European superstate that still exists come the end of this year.
I don’t think the British people tend to sway toward rebellion or terrorism. Since 1651 we have in the most part avoided large scale disorder but that said I think that Theresa May might be cursing the decline in numbers of the British army since the end of the Cold War. She might also be regretting her own part in the pursuit of ex soldiers who foolishly did their jobs in Northern Ireland and the Middle East. It might be a difficult sell ordering soldiers to open fire on “fascists ” when the soldiers suspect they might get dragged out of a nursing home in forty years’ time by the police because the politicians who gave the order are dead or suffering from dementia.
I think the likelihood of resistance by disgruntled Brits this time round is likely to be high. I suspect that road blocking and mass sit ins are more likely than full on riots and it’ll only turn nasty if the real fascists (those democracy-deniers in parliament) use physical force against peaceful protest … then those psychopaths I mentioned earlier will take charge and all bets are off.”.Stocks Go Into Shock. Dow Plunges Nearly 3,000 Points
Stocks Go Into Shock. Dow Plunges Nearly 3,000 Points
Updated at 4:21 p.m. ET
U.S. stock indexes fell sharply Monday, a day after the Federal Reserve aggressively cut interest rates to near zero in a bid to stop the economy from crashing. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 2,997.20 points, or about 13%, as coronavirus measures rapidly expanded. The S&P 500 index lost nearly 12%.
The Dow, which closed at 20,188.52, has lost 31.7% since its record high Feb. 12 as the market plunges deeper into bear territory after an 11-year winning streak.
The Dow's breathtaking drop Monday was the biggest since the Black Monday crash of October 1987, when the blue chip index lost 22%.
The deep stock market sell-off reflects broad concerns that despite these economic measures, the U.S. economy is likely heading toward a recession.
Many parts of the economy have abruptly come to a standstill. On Monday afternoon, most of Bay Area shut down from a directive. San Mateo Mayor Joe Goethals said only police and fire departments, hospitals, grocery stores, pharmacies and a few other businesses will be allowed to remain open.
In the rest of the country, government orders temporarily closed restaurants and bars in New York City, Los Angeles and Chicago and recommendations to ban groups of more than 10 people have been among the latest attempts to stem the spread of the coronavirus.
The hard-hit airline industry is seeking $50 billion in aid and loans from the federal government. "The rapid spread of COVID-19, along with the government and business-imposed restrictions on air travel, are having a unprecedented and debilitating impact on U.S. airlines," the industry group Airlines for America said.
In an afternoon news conference, President Trump said "we're going to back the airlines, 100%."
Leaders of the Group of Seven — the U.S., Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United Kingdom — agreed to work together to speed up and coordinate the global response to the pandemic.
"We are mobilizing the full range of instruments, including monetary and fiscal measures, as well as targeted actions, to support immediately and as much as necessary the workers, companies, and sectors most affected," the G-7 said in a statement.
The S&P 500 index continued to fall after temporary trading halts were lifted on the New York Stock Exchange Friday morning. A 7% drop in the S&P 500 automatically forces trading to stop for 15 minutes, which has happened three times in the past week.
On Sunday evening, the Fed took the extraordinary move of cutting rates by 1 percentage point to near zero. The last time it moved rates that low was in 2008, during the financial crisis.
"The effects of the coronavirus will weigh on economic activity in the near term and pose risks to the economic outlook," the Fed said in a statement.
The drops on Wall Street follow steep falls in Europe, where stock indexes were down as much as 11% Monday.
Oil prices fell nearly 9% to about $29 per barrel. They're down more than 50% so