SURF
Surfed over the weekend and had some fun in the midst of it. On Saturday, I got about eight waves on the short board – got a couple at Second Bowl, and finished up at Ellgrass Reef. The last part of Saturday’s session was epic – a “neighbors only” crew. It was especially nice to see Bradley, Mikey, and Fred – boys to men. Surf was non-existent today, but the buoys are showing a steep south at 175 – maybe an omen of things to come as the direction shifts into our window.
Weeks of small inconsistent surf – but LB-able; and on the doorstep of summer’s end, a south swell is predicted for Labor Day weekend. Of course, it makes sense. South swells come on weekends. We shall see.
The Internet Labor day weekend swell started showing Tuesday night – as predicted by the Internet oracle – the harvest platform was showing 2 feet at 25 seconds from 190. Today, Wednesday, the platform is showing 4 feet at 20 seconds from 200. But wait – wind swell at 7.3 feet at 11 seconds from 300. Now remember, the swell is building and the Internet swell will be here on Thursday and Friday – but the takers are already in place. Thursday – early – 5.2 feet at 20 seconds from 200 – it’s dark outside, but I can just feel it. Thursday morning, Thursday afternoon, and on into Thursday evening – the swell was pumping all day – all day. I watched Drain Pipe and was slack jawed – unbelievable tubes – guys just charging. Thursday night to Friday – 6.0 feet at 20 second from 190 – it won’t quit. Friday afternoon, and the swell is still going strong. This has been an amazing display of raw energy – days of relentless overhead surf. Rick told of surf at Governments that took the form of surly double-overhead monsters – boils, swirling high-tide push, and plenty of reflection off the coast. Out in front, it’s looking good, but the high tide is definitely causing the cliffs to push back. Friday evening – its backed off a tad – 4.4 feet at 17 seconds from 195 – seriously – does this mean the swell is dying? If so, a very slow death. Nope – All day Saturday – all day Sunday – soooo much water. Sunday evening and the swell is at 3.6 feet from 185 at 17 seconds.
From the South Shore – Gerry wrote: A few tid-bits on the SW last week: Largest swell to hit South Shore since 95′…ripped the buoy out at Ala Moana Bowls…dozen+ boards snapped…150 lifeguard rescues (2 drownings). Guys trying, but failing, to re-create Duke Kahanamoku’s epic 50′s one mile ride from Outside Castles through Queens and into the beach at Moana Hotel… I surfed the outer reef at Canoes, sittin’ so far out I needed a map…hotels tiny dots…Guys from the NShore bringing their guns.
Okay – the big swell is long gone, but the big crowds still linger. It’s been small with residual south and northwest wind swell. Looking back – it was quite a run.
RANT
I usually rail on the low-grade progress we are making in the USA. My cynicism is reaching new highs as Corpgov reaches new lows. But in my ramblings, I came across a USA that made me feel good. There was a time when things were bleaker than they are now – twice the unemployment, hunger, lack of security, homelessness – it was all the rage. Corporations, banks, and their allies were taking care of their own, but for the rest of the USA, it was dark. FDR was the leader at the time. He understood that the profit motive was not going to see the country out of the black pit it had entered. He knew work means more than money – that there are other components like self-esteem, positive relationships, family strength, and effort with promise. FDR also saw the long-term benefit of investing in the citizens of the USA and its infrastructure. It was called the Works Progress Administration – Federal Arts Project – Civilian Conservation Corp – PWA. Art, reading schools, libraries, roads, dams, airports, sidewalks – cruise any city and you can find infrastructure – campgrounds, trails. I’ve researched some of the projects – even here in town. And the people’s stories about how they benefited. My gosh – change the name to Reagan International Airport – but it was still constructed via WPA. The WPA and PWA built thousands of modern schools and few prisons. They erected magnificent academic buildings and athletic facilities at the nation’s public universities, and they constructed entire community college campuses. They built public libraries and museums as well, while WPA workers preserved and indexed collections for use today. WPA artists embellished many structures, such as Brooklyn College’s library, with art exhorting students to match and surpass the achievements of the past. Their inscriptions continue to advise us: “Enter to Learn, Go Forth to Serve” and “Education — The Defense of the State.”
Steinbeck rejected a common charge against WPA workers in his essay, “Primer on the ’30s”: “It was the fixation of businessmen that the WPA did nothing but lean on shovels. I had an uncle who was particularly irritated at shovel-leaning. When he pooh-poohed my contention that shovel-leaning was necessary, I bet him five dollars, which I didn’t have, that he couldn’t shovel sand for fifteen timed minutes without stopping. He said a man should give a good day’s work and grabbed a shovel. At the end of three minutes his face was red, at six he was staggering and before eight minutes were up his wife stopped him to save him from apoplexy. And he never mentioned shovel-leaning again.“
Yes, here in town – been at a show at the Civic – “Debated for its location, its usefulness and its cost, the auditorium plan stalled and nearly died. But low interest rates and money available from the New Deal — 80 percent funding if it was built by legitimately unemployed workers and 45 percent funding if professional builders were used — allowed construction to begin. The Civic Auditorium was dedicated in 1939 to much fanfare (although the city had to ask for more federal funds after the builder, trying to shave costs, narrowed the stage from 29 to 20 feet — not even big enough for the Santa Cruz High Band to perform, the band director noted at the time).” And how about a backstop and baseball field at Santa Cruz High, murals at the post office (shown), and many other road projects. And the investment? How much commerce facilitated by bridges and airports? What was the addition to the GDP – even now? And the education, books, art, plays, poetry – a strength for families – for some of us, our parents, for others, our parent’s parents. The WPA and people involved made the USA great at a time when the black hole could have engulfed us. It was novel, risky, and great – it was the USA. Never been done before – and apparently, given our current political climate, never to be done again. Sure it had its detractors – but look at the results – they are still with us. Yes, the government ran a deficit – Just think of it as an investment in the country and its people – one that is still paying off. If you are interested – just Google “WPA” and check the images. At the time there was a great poster program to educate and stoke the population – I included some here. As you follow the art, follow the threads it produces, and you too may become proud of what we did last time we were in darkness.
Rather an amazing story shaping up. After the protests in England, officials there are considering limiting social networking in an effort to stop subversive communications from spreading like wild fire. The idea is that if people can’t spontaneously communicate and organize, the police and management officials can corral the situation. Essentially, a lesson learned from the Arab Spring – and not really appreciated by the authorities. Were it to stop there, the situation would just be a topic of discussion in the halls of free speech – and the positive aspects of social networking at it relates to the Arab Spring. Nevertheless, here in the States, paranoids rule – fear is king – and control is job one. Therefore, it comes as no surprise that Bay Area Rapid Transit folks have turned to blocking cell phone service at some transit stations – “officials trying to control protests that grow out of social networking and have the potential to become violent.” That is to say, we saw the Arab Spring and the English Fall, and we do not intend to let it happen here – cell phones being the root cause. But Anonymous sees things differently and has hacked BART computers. “V” anyone – “The transit agency disabled the effected website, myBART.org, Sunday night after it also had been altered by apparent hackers who posted images of the so-called Guy Fawkes masks that anarchists have previously worn when showing up to physical protests.” Anonymous goes on to say, “”We are Anonymous, we are your citizens, we are the people, we do not tolerate oppression from any government agency. BART has proved multiple times that they have no problem exploiting and abusing the people.” No fucking way!!!! Now think of this – BART says, “…the cell phone disruptions were legal because the agency owns the property and infrastructure.” When the economic crisis forces the federal, state, and county to privatize all public property – and this is no joke, it’s happening right now – then complete control of all communication will be legal – no free speech issues. Of course there are those among use who support such control of society – they say, “I don’t do anything wrong, I have nothing to worry about, it’s those who have something to hide who complain.
There’s enormous “political pressure not to reverse” inequality till it “explodes in our faces.” We deny the inequality between rich and the other 99%. The rich are addicts. More is never enough. They thrive on greed, blind to the needs of others. Worse, they have no commitment to America as a nation. From Forbes billionaires and signers of “no new taxes” pledges, to Mitch McConnell’s un-American willingness to sabotage the economy to deliver on his main promise to make Obama a one-term president.
Warning: The rage is sweeping London, Damascus, Tripoli, the spreading Sahara desert. Is America next? Tax the super-rich, or revolution will overrun America next.
Yes, tax the super-rich. Tax them now, before the other 99% rise up, trigger a new American Revolution, another meltdown, a new Great Depression. Historically, revolutions build over long periods, bubbles growing to critical mass. Then, “something happens.” Suddenly. Unpredictably. A flashpoint triggers ignition. Nobody saw it coming in Egypt. A suicide in a remote village uploaded on a young Google executive’s Facebook page. Goes viral, raging out of control. Cannot be stopped. So think hard about these six warnings blowing a new mega-bubble that will soon explode in our collective faces:
1. Warning: High unemployment is a global ticking time bomb
An earlier special report in Time, “Poor vs. Rich: A New Global Conflict,” warns that a “conflict between two worlds — one rich, one poor — is developing, and the battlefield is the globe itself.”
Just 25 developed nations with 750 million citizens “consume most of the world’s resources … enjoy history’s highest standard of living.” But now they face 100 poor nations with 2 billion people, many living in poverty, all demanding “an ever larger share of that wealth.” A British leader calls this a “time bomb for the human race.”
2. Warning: Tax cuts for the rich increase youth unemployment
In a New York Times column, Matthew Klein, a 24-year-old Council on Foreign Relations researcher, saw the parallel between the 25% unemployment among Egypt’s young and the 21% for young Americans: “The young will bear the brunt of the pain” as governments rebalance budgets. “Taxes on workers will be raised, spending on education will be cut while mortgage subsidies and entitlements for the elderly are untouchable.” And more tax cuts for the rich.
3. Warning: Rich get richer on commodity inflation, poor get angrier
USAToday’s John Waggoner warned: “Soaring food prices send millions into poverty, hunger.” The “rise in food prices means a descent into extreme poverty and hunger, warns the World Bank.” One Pimco manager warns that commodity inflation exposes “the underlying inequalities and issues related to the standard of living that boil beneath the surface.”
4. Warning: The super-rich are blinded by their addiction to money
In “Free Lunch: How the Wealthiest American Enrich Themselves at Government Expense (And Stick You with the Bill),” David Cay Johnston warns that the rich are like addicts, and to “the addicted, money is like cocaine, too much is never enough.” Recent data: 300,000 Americans in “the top tenth of 1% of income had nearly as much income as all 150 million Americans who make up the economic lower half of our population.”
5. Warning: Politicians are corrupted by this super-rich addiction to greed
In “Washington’s Suicide Pact,” Newsweek’s Ezra Klein warns: “Congress is careening toward the worst of all worlds: massive job losses and an exploding deficit.” And the debt-ceiling drama just made things a lot worse. Millions of jobs were lost during Bush years, his wars, tax cuts for the rich. Yet, today the GOP is in total denial of that legacy, blinded by an obsession to destroy Obama’s presidency, no matter the consequences.
6. Warning: Soon the revolutionaries will rage, then dominate ‘Third World America’
Yes, we are ripe for a surprise revolution. In “Third World America” Arianna Huffington warns: “Washington rushed to the rescue of Wall Street but forgot about Main Street.” Now Bernanke’s promise of cheap money through 2013 is just one more “free lunch” to the richest 1%. Meanwhile, “one in five Americans unemployed or underemployed. One in nine families unable to make the minimum payment on their credit cards. One in eight mortgages in default or foreclosure. One in eight Americans on food stamps. Upward mobility has always been at the center of the American Dream … that promise has been broken… The American Dream is becoming a nightmare.”
Wake up folks. Super-rich addicts are destroying the American Dream for everyone. They’re destroying the American economy. They don’t care about you. Yes, they hear the ticking time bomb. They’re stockpiling cash. Don’t say you weren’t warned. The IMF sees a new collapse sweeping across the planet. Open your eyes. You’re not watching a film. This is not a metaphor. Plan now for the revolution, class warfare, market crash, economic collapse, plan for another depression.
Retaliation? The U.S. Department of Justice is investigating whether the credit rating agency Standard & Poor’s improperly rated dozens of mortgage securities leading up to the nation’s financial crisis; about time. And by the way, what about the white-collar crime Wall Street perpetrated? The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission are being accused of destroying thousands of documents related to potential violations by the nation’s largest banks and hedge funds. You’re fucking kidding me (YFKM).
“Blues ain’t never going anywhere,” Edwards told The Associated Press in 2008. “It can get slow, but it ain’t going nowhere. You play a lowdown dirty shame slow and lonesome, my mama dead, my papa across the sea I ain’t dead but I’m just supposed to be blues. You can take that same blues, make it uptempo, a shuffle blues, that’s what rock `n’ roll did with it. So blues ain’t going nowhere. Ain’t goin’ nowhere.”
Pursuit of GNH (gross national happiness): First, we should not denigrate the value of economic progress. When people are hungry, deprived of basic needs such as clean water, health care, and education, and without meaningful employment, they suffer. Economic development that alleviates poverty is a vital step in boosting happiness.
Second, relentless pursuit of GNP to the exclusion of other goals is also no path to happiness. In the US, GNP has risen sharply in the past 40 years, but happiness has not. Instead, single-minded pursuit of GNP has led to great inequalities of wealth and power, fueled the growth of a vast underclass, trapped millions of children in poverty, and caused serious environmental degradation.
Third, happiness is achieved through a balanced approach to life by both individuals and societies. As individuals, we are unhappy if we are denied our basic material needs, but we are also unhappy if the pursuit of higher incomes replaces our focus on family, friends, community, compassion, and maintaining internal balance. As a society, it is one thing to organize economic policies to keep living standards on the rise, but quite another to subordinate all of society’s values to the pursuit of profit.