An American bald eagle in rehab in an aviary in Maryland: Glynn Wilson

The Muddled Picture –
By Glynn Wilson –

MONTROSS, Va. — An American bald eagle just flew by overhead, going north up the Virginia bank of the Potomac River. Its white crown, yellow beak and brown feathers were unmistakable shining in the early Autumn sun with a powder blue sky as a background filled with puffy white and grey cumulus clouds.

There are several nesting pairs of osprey around here too, so soon I will break out the Cannon camera with the 1300 millimeter lens and get some photos.

The high was 75 here today, with a projected low of 58, so it’s perfect camping weather. I’ve landed this time in a Virginia state park after spending most of the summer in Maryland and Washington, D.C.

The problem here is finding a reliable cell phone signal or WiFi connection, although there are some weak signals around. Just not strong enough to do much.

This is a problem all over rural America, where even law enforcement first responders sometimes have trouble communicating and doing their jobs reliably. Congress is supposedly talking about the issue, throwing a little money at the problem, all while still trying to question President Donald Trump’s former aides about his obstruction of justice and other corruption — and still failing to secure the votes for articles of impeachment.

Some people are supposed to be protesting in Washington and all over the country over the next few days to demand action on climate change. But I doubt they will be able to summon more than a handful to do what needs to be done — surround the White House and demand Trump’s immediate resignation.

It is past time for peaceful walks in the park with smiling faces and funny signs. But I expect that’s what we will get this weekend and next week.

Since Hurricane Dorian flooded and destroyed the Bahama islands, which saved the east coast of Florida from billions in damage, two more hurricanes have skirted the U.S. coast. One is dumping 20 inches of rain as we speak on Texas around Houston.

While the national news media has stopped talking about it for the most part, the Amazon rain forests are still burning.

Trump just announced that he will try to stop California and other states from setting their own limits on fossil fuel emissions, and opened the Artic National Wildlife Refuge to oil and gas drilling, an area that has been protected since the early days of the environmental movement in the 1970s.

Trump’s purposeful destruction of the planet makes Sarah Palin’s “drill baby drill” slogan in 2008 look like kid stuff. President Obama oversaw the United States becoming an exporter of oil and gas, so some on Wall Street seemed to shrug at Iran’s alleged attack on the largest oil refinery in the world the other day in Saudi Arabia.

They are still counting the votes in Israel, so we don’t know yet if Trump’s buddy Benjamin “Bibi” Netanyahu will continue in another term as president and prime minister there. He’s the one who whispered in Trump’s ear and talked him into walking out on a perfectly fine treaty with Iran to halt the production of nuclear weapons. So now just because of Trump’s bellicosity, like a third world tin pot dictator, he is as responsible for the attacks on the oil refinery as the Mullah’s in Iran.

If we really value the beauty and wildlife here, as well as human life, we are going to have to find a way to stop listening to these right-wing, racist politicians and elect some competent people to public office.

It’s been hard to watch the Democrats going after each other in the primary. We need a rock star to beat Trump, if the Democrats are just going to forego even trying to live up to their constitutional responsibility to impeach him. Unfortunately, there are no rock stars on the stage in the Democratic debates.

We need Michelle Obama, like Michael Moore said long after I said it first. It could be that any Democrat will do. Maybe enough people are so tired of the constant fake news Twitter storms out of the White House bedroom that Democrats will show up and turn out this time, and enough Republicans will hide out at home on election day. Maybe enough independents will swing the election away from Trump.

I’m still not holding my breath. With gerrymandering and other voter suppression techniques, the help of the Russians and the likes of Steve Bannon, and enough Christians and business libertarians willing to vote for Trump, he still has a 50-50 chance at another term.

Which just means four more years of no progress fighting climate change due to global warming from the burning of fossil fuels for energy.

I managed to spend most of the summer out in the woods in the mountains somewhere and avoided the worst of it. But it was another record breaking summer for heat and heat related pollution, most significantly the new phenomenon of the heat dome that covered the cities on the Eastern Seaboard back in July for a few days, also trapping an invisible ozone cloud underneath it. The air was really bad then, especially for those with asthma and other respiratory problems.

I got out from under it and hid out in the mountains. But I heard someone on NPR say in the past few days that these hot summer months are going to get even longer and worse in the years ahead. Even Maryland could end up with a four month long summer in a few years, if nothing is done to at least try to cool the planet.

Just ask my friends in Alabama on Facebook how hot it’s been this summer, with days on end approaching 100 degrees and low temperatures at night when the mercury doesn’t drop below 80.

I talked to a musician friend and golfing buddy in Mobile today, using a weak WiFi phone signal, and he said it is exactly 100 degrees today! September 18.

“It’s been fucking hot down here,” he said, so he’s not picked up a golf club since Easter.

So you get the picture. I’m going to get off here and check out the sunset at the beach and see if I can snap some pics here today. See you soon … if I can find a connection to post.