Pop-Up Tornado !

The arrival of Hurricane Irma in the USA has been much anticipated. CNN staff seem on the verge of ecstasy when describing the potential horrors & dangers of the storm.

They've fixated on a few favorite phrases:

"Hide from Wind -- Run from Water!"  
Repeating & intoning this phrase for the past two days as if learned from Great-Grandpappy instead of first hearing it themselves a day ago. [Seems the phrase is known to Floridians...]

Danger of Popup Tornado !
Does the Trendy & hip "popup" tornado differ from any tornado?

Wag that Dog!

As the USA gets whacked, why do we have potential relief forces still stationed in Italy, Germany, Spain & Japan?
These organized resources could be directly helping our own people, who are now suffering distress & great danger.  Trump® promised to bring our military home.
 

Rank	Country / Territory	U.S. Troops
#1	Japan	39,345
#2	Germany	34,805
#3	South Korea	23,468
#4	Italy	12,102
#5	Afghanistan	9,294
#6	United Kingdom	8,479
#7	Kuwait	6,296
#8	Iraq	5,540
#9	Bahrain	5,504
#10	Guam	3,831
#11	Spain	3,256
#12	Qatar	2,976
#13	Turkey	2,234
#14	Djibouti	1,961
#15	Jordan	1,759
#16	United Arab Emirates	1,079
#17	Belgium	842
#18	Cuba	806
#19	Romania	667
#20	Greece	407
	Other / Unknown	34,834  ? ?
	Total	199,485

America Bare

Occupied Hawai'i is one of many places aggressive intruders have stolen the inheritance of native communities.

We Hawaiians remain peaceful as violence has been unleashed around us for many decades. We keep ALOHA alive around us.

But let's face truth: unconcerned tourists and uncontrolled waves of nonresident investors fail to notice our suffering. They overlook Hawaiian children becoming homeless street kids, as the lands many generations have farmed & protected are stolen. The USA ignores its treaties and international laws on indigenous people.

A continent of Native Americans are still besmirched & vilified as savages and "redskins" ... Outsiders occupy native lands, systematically humiliating American Indian, Aleut and Hawaiian communities. Pre-existing cultures are deliberately oppressed.

America Bare -- Ugly, violent, and they claim our inheritance.

RIP: Kriss Alexander Lambert

Kriss Alexander Lambert died unexpectedly at home in Puyallup, Washington this week. He was 57. 

Kriss was born on Cape Cod, Massachusetts, and lived & worked in Lake Placid NY, Florida & the Carribean, Oklahoma, Japan, Maui, the Kona coast, the Pacific Northwest, etc. He was a serial entrepreneur with many licenses & professional qualifications. He worked many years as a ship's captain, and held a US Coast Guard 100 Ton Master license w/ 100 ton Sailing & Towing endorsements. Kriss was an accomplished musician, with many other hobbies & skills (such as woodworking), but is best remembered as outstandingly open-hearted. Friends recall "He gave good hugs!" 

Kriss worked for the International Olympic Committee as the Official Mascot of the 1980 Winter Olympics (XIII Olympic Winter Games) at Lake Placid, New York, USA. He did many months of prior promotional work at venues such as the Tournament of Roses Parade, the Orange Bowl, etc. in character as Roni Raccoon, and was rinkside for the historic "Miracle on Ice" hockey game when the USA team beat the USSR (actively directing assorted cheers while officially neutral). His photo and uniform hang in the Lake Placid Olympic Museum.
  
Kriss leaves behind his beloved & gracious wife Pam, many friends around the world, and close family in Puyallup & Washington state, in Hawai'i, on Cape Cod, in Sweden, and elsewhere. He was proud of family, and his comforting, lively home was always inviting. We each share shock & great sadness, but Kriss wanted us all to Celebrate Life. 

Friends of Kriss Lambert, thank you for your prayers. Please Share in coming weeks or years if you recall stories involving Kriss or Kriss-themed anecdotes: inspiring, funny, loving, goofy or otherwise. Welcome!

Military Playgrounds

Do you try to ignore unpleasant places? Afghanistan has been an imperial boneyard for millennia. Korea is well into its second century of being occupied, abused, divided, and further despoiled. Common folk in too many other places suffer terribly, controlled by militarism.

The population of the USA is partly at fault. Our costly adventurism overseas crippled what might have been. We now choose to watch dancing cute cats on the internet, believing a warm & cozy feeling proves we're kind & good, regardless of the bullets and hellfire we rain on innocent people, and the deadly corruption and tortures we fund round the world.

Keep American forces home.

Militarism is only one of many possible economic engines. Militarism is painful and dirty; with a corrupt entrenched system. We could be investing in creating a better living environment, or in housing, or in better health for all. But American citizens are suckered persuaded to invest endlessly in a huge & wasteful military.

This week we're told taking away DACA from 800,000 undocumented or illegal migrants (link) is "absolutely counter to what we stand for as a nation." But rhetoric is cheap as we continue to dodge fundamental injustices. Can you handle the truth?

What does the US Government stand for as a nation?
-- USA stole lands from native people, without compensation
-- Military bases (incl. golf courses) occupy ancestral lands
-- Extraction industries now rape our homelands
-- Yankee "owners" of our resources fund agents to subdue us